
Book /f/y^ 



PRESENTED BY 



The Sesquicentennial of Brown University 
1764-1914 



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6 



The Sesquicentennial 

of 

BROWN UNIVERSITY 

1764-1914 

z^ Commemoration 




Published by the University 



Gift 
The Dni^eraUy 



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D. B. UPDIKE THE MERRYMOUNT PRESS, BOSTON 



Into this Liberal is" Catholic Institution shall never be 
admitted any Religious Tests but on the Contrary all the 
Members hereof shall Jbr ever enjoy full free ^solute 
and uninterrupted Liberty of Conscience . . . Youths of 
all Religious Denominations shall and may be freely ad- 
mitted to the Equal Advantages Emoluments &? Honors 
of the College or University. 

FROM THE CHARTER OF 1764 



Note 

THE Corporation at the adjourned Annual Meeting held 
on Friday, October 16, 1914, 
" Voted: That a committee of five, of which the Chairmen of 
the General Committee and of the Committee on the Academic 
Programme shall be two, the remaining three to be selected by 
the President, shall be appointed to take charge of the finan- 
cing, publication, and distribution of a report of the exercises 
and festivities attendant upon the celebration of the one hundred 
and fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the University." 
The committee as finally constituted was made to consist of 
Mr. Henry D. Sharpe, Professor WilHam MacDonald, Rev. 
Henry M. King, Professor Walter G. Everett, and Professor 
Albert K. Potter. On March 1 , 1915, the committee requested 
Mr. William V. Kellen, '72, to edit this record. The editor is 
chiefly indebted to the vivid and accurate reports of ' ' The 
Providence Journal" for the story of the celebration. 



vu 



Contents 

Note 

Commemorative Sketch 3 

University Sermon 33 

President Faunce 35 

The Religious History of the University 50 

Dr. Barbour 50 

Bishop Burgess 51 

President Horr 61 

Dr. Anderson 73 

President Mullins 75 

President Sharpless 83 

President Thomas 100 

Bishop Perry 110 

The Celebration Play 119 

Early Years of Brown University 126 

Dr. Keen 127 

The Torchlight Procession 159 

Historical Address and Presentation of Delegates 162 

Address: Justice Hughes 164 

Presentation of Delegates 198 



Contents 

Concert by the Mendelssohn Glee Club 204 

University Address and Conferring of Degrees 206 

Address: Principal Peterson 206 

Conferring of Degrees 225 

Andrews Field Athletic Exercises 230 

The University Dinner 233 

Dr. Keen 233 

Governor Pothier 235 

President Lowell 237 

Archdeacon Cunningham 240 

Ambassador Naon 244 

Mr. Robert Cooper Smith 247 

Mr. Taft 253 

President Faunce 257 

Congratulatory Addresses 265 

Courses of Lectures 305 



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I 

A Commemorative Sketch 



A Commemorative Sketch 

BROWN University was incorporated on March 
3, 1764, under " the Name of Trustees and Fel- 
lows of the College or University in the English Col- 
ony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in 
New England in America, the Trustees and Fellows at 
any Time hereafter giving such more particular Name 
to the College in Honor of the greatest and most dis- 
tinguished Benefactor or otherwise as they shall think 
proper." Nicholas Brown, the first of that name, was 
one of the incorporators, as well as one of the first trus- 
tees of the college. 

Rhode Island College was the popular name given 
the new institution, and Warren, a little village on the 
eastern shore of Narragansett Bay, midway between 
Newport and Providence, became its temporary home. 
On February 8, 1770, the Corporation finally fixed 
upon Providence as the site of the college, and there 
"The College Edifice" was erected. Subsequently, on 
September 6, 1804, "the greatest and most distin- 
guished Benefactor" of the charter having appeared 
in the person of the second Nicholas Brown, a son of 
the incorporator and a graduate of the class of 1 786, 
the Corporation voted " that this College be called and 
known in all future time by the Name of Brown Uni- 
versity." The subsequent interest of the second Nicho- 
las Brown in the college, as shown by personal devo- 
tion and timely gifts, served but to emphasize his right 
to the title of Benefactor ; and his son, John Carter 
Brown, of the class of 1816, the Founder, and his son 
in turn, John Nicholas Brown, of the class of 1885, the 

C 3 1 



Brown University 

donor of the John Carter Brown Library, worthily car- 
ried on the tradition. 

As the sesquicentennial of the University drew near, 
the Corporation, at its meeting on June 18, 1908, voted 
that a temporary committee of five members, " to con- 
sist of one Fellow, two Trustees, and two members 
of the Faculty, be appointed by the President and the 
Chancellor acting conjointly, to consider preliminary 
plans for the fitting celebration of the One Hundred 
and Fiftieth Anniversary of the founding of the Univer- 
sity." At the adjourned annual meeting of that year, in 
October, such committee was appointed: of the Fellows, 
Rowland Gibson Hazard, '76; of the Trustees, the Rev. 
Henry Melville King, and Henry Dexter Sharpe, '94; 
and of the Faculty, Professor William MacDonald, 
and Professor Walter G. Everett, '85. This committee, 
through its chairman, Mr. Hazard, made, from time 
to time, reports of progress, which led to the following 
action by the Corporation at the adjourned fall meet- 
ing of October 13, 1909: "Voted: That the temporary 
committee be continued as a Committee to have charge 
of the Celebration of the One Hundred and Fiftieth 
Anniversary of the University, with power to add to its 
number and appoint sub-committees, and expend any 
money appropriated for that purpose." Of the Cele- 
bration Committee thus constituted, the President of 
Brown University, the Rev. William Herbert Perry 
Faunce, of the class of 1880, became a member ex 
officio. Subsequently Mr. Sharpe became chairman of 
the committee. 

This Celebration Committee fixed upon the period 
from Sunday, October 1 1 ,1914, to Thursday, October 
15, 1914, inclusive, as the most appropriate time for 
[4] 



A Commemorative Sketch 

celebrating the academic festival. Pending the elabo- 
ration of plans for the celebration, various publications 
relating to the University were issued to herald the 
approaching festival. 

The first of these was "The Historical Catalogue 
of Brown University," issued in June, 1914, in a new 
edition brought down to date by Louise Prosser Bates, 
A.M., Keeper of Graduate Records. This revised edi- 
tion contains the names of all persons ever associated 
with the University as officers or students, graduate 
and non-graduate, so far as ascertainable, with a brief 
account of the career of each. The names of all officers 
and graduates of "The Women's College in Brown 
University," which was established by action of the 
Corporation at the annual meeting of September, 1891, 
are also included in this catalogue. 

"The History of Brown University, 1764-1 914/' by 
Walter C. Bronson,Litt.D.,of the class of 1887, Pro- 
fessor of English Literature, fresh from the press in 
September of the latter year, formed the second of the 
commemorative volumes "published under the gen- 
eral supervision of the Committee in charge of the Cel- 
ebration." This scholarly and exhaustive story of the 
growth of the University is, as set forth by the author, 
"intended chiefly for its graduates, and some of the 
contents will have little interest for other readers. The 
effort has been made to portray the University in all its 
aspects — not merely as a gallery of academic worthies, 
or an educational experiment station, or a stage where 
men now grave and reverend disported themselves in 
thoughtless mirth, or an athletic and social club, but 
as all these and more. Even to graduates, therefore, 
some parts of the narrative will appeal less strongly 

c 5 :\ 



Brown University 

than others; but it seemed more essential to give a just 
account of the University as a whole than to rivet the 
attention of every reader to every page." 

The Committee of Management of the John Carter 
Brown Library, consisting of President Faunce, Mrs. 
John Nicholas Brown, Robert Hale Ives Goddard, '58, 
Stephen Ostrom Edwards, '79, and William Vail Kel- 
len,'72, published a monograph on that notable collec- 
tion as its share in the sesquicentennial festival. Under 
the title of "The John Carter Brown Library, a His- 
tory," the Librarian, George Parker Winship, traced 
the family history of the founder, emphasized him as a 
" Collector," rehearsed the making of the famous" Cat- 
alogue," described the founder's accomplished wife and 
co-worker, sympathetically portrayed John Nicholas 
Brown, the donor, and sketched the growth of the 
library since it became a part of Brown University. 

The portrait of George L. Littlefield, a conspicuous 
benefactor of the University, was painted by Mr. Wal- 
ter C. Loring under a vote of the Corporation, in recog- 
nition of his signal service to the University and as an 
anniversary token. This vivid portrait of a vigorous 
Rhode Islander was hung among those of other college 
worthies early in the autumn of 1914 in Sayles Memo- 
rial Hall. 

By invitation of the University, the American Mathe- 
matical Society held its annual meeting in Providence, 
in September, 1914, and added its congratulatory note 
in advance of the festival. 

The University Library, the John Carter Brown Li- 
brary, the Providence Public Library, the Rhode Island 
Historical Society, and the Rhode Island School of De- 
sign, through harmonious cooperation, arranged com- 

c o 



A Commemorative Sketch 

memorative exhibitions, each with its own distinctive 
note, to be held in Providence during the autumn in 
anticipation of the academic celebration and sympa- 
thetically grouped about it. 

The University Library in its model home, the John 
Hay Library Building, displayed a collection of early 
historical documents and relics relating to the Univer- 
sity, including the petition to the General Assembly 
for the charter, divers drafts of the charter itself, and, 
finally, the charter as engrossed and signed; early cata- 
logues; the University seals; and portraits and other 
memorials of famous Brown graduates, including man- 
uscript letters and unpublished poems by John Hay. 
There were also specimens of student publications from 
" The Brunonian "of 1 830 to the current " Brown Daily 
Herald," together with copies of the famous mock pro- 
grammes. Memorials of the administrations of all the 
Presidents of the University were effectively displayed. 
Here were shown President Manning's mahogany writ- 
ing-desk ; the chair in which Horace Mann sat when 
a student at Brown ; and the old table, in the drawer of 
which the College Library was kept during the Ameri- 
can Revolution. Here might also be seen Adoniram 
Judson's "Translation of the Bible into Burmese," 
and the writings of other Brown missionaries. Two 
maps, showing the extent of Providence at the time of 
the location of the college there, and an early view 
of the college showing only University Hall and Presi- 
dent Manning's house, were among the rarities. 

The John Carter Brown Library had an anniversary 
exhibition designed to show some of the finest and most 
interesting of the books and manuscripts in that re- 
markable collection. Here were original editions of the 
C 73 



Brown University 

famous Columbus letter printed in 14-93, as well as of 
the Americus Vespucius tract on "The New World." 
Caxton, the first English printer, was represented by 
a copy of "The Royal Book," printed in 1484. Beside it 
appeared Boccaccio's " De laRuine des Nobles Hommes 
et Femmes," printed in 1476 by Colard Mansion; the 
first folio Shakespeare ; a fragment of the Gutenberg 
Bible; the first and second editions of Milton's "Para- 
dise Lost,"and the first edition of" Paradise Regained." 
There were also shown choice specimens of cartogra- 
phy, and some exceedingly rare autographic docu- 
ments written by famous Americans. 

The Providence Public Library made two distinct 
exhibits in connection with the anniversary, one during 
the previous winter and the other during the autumn. 
In the earlier exhibit the aim was to include some pub- 
lications typifying the administration of each one of the 
nine University presidents; in the later, to mark in a 
similar manner each of the six colleges existing in the 
American colonies when Brown University opened its 
doors in 1 764 as Rhode Island College. The earlier ex- 
hibit also contained miscellaneous objects of interest, 
such as a copy of the "Providence Gazette" of May 
24, 1777, announcing the temporary suspension of col- 
lege work. 

The Rhode Island School of Design offered a special 
loan exhibition of early American art. This was made 
up of a very unusual group of portraits including minia- 
tures, old silver, pewter, embroideries, samplers, wall- 
papers, and the like. The Colonial House, built to hold 
and display the Pendleton Collection of old furniture 
and china, was also opened to visitors. 

The Rhode Island Historical Society gave a notable 

[8 3 



A Commemorative Sketch 

exhibition, consisting of over one hundred ancient and 
modern views of Brown University There were shown 
the venerable Meeting Street Schoolhouse, built in 
1770 and still standing, which was the earliest home 
of the University in Providence ; the ancient University 
Grammar School, on the corner of College and Pros- 
pect streets ; views of the earlier and later University 
buildings, of the Front Campus and the Middle Cam- 
pus ; and the various playing-fields of the University. 
Different stages of the beginnings and growth of "The 
Women's College in Brown University" were also de- 
picted. 

The Annmary Brown Memorial was also open 
throughout anniversary week, through the courtesy of 
the founder. General Rush Christopher Hawkins. Many 
of the alumni visited for the first time this important 
addition to the artistic and educational resources of 
Providence. At the Memorial, erected by the founder 
to perpetuate the name of his wife, a granddaughter of 
the Nicholas Brown whose name the University bears, 
were to be seen a hundred superb paintings, about 
equally divided between the older masters and mod- 
ern artists. There were also exhibited nearly five hun- 
dred opened volumes from the "first presses" of the 
fifteenth century, exemplifying, as nowhere else in the 
world, at a single view, the history of the first half- 
century of printing. Touching more nearly the sympa- 
thetic interest of many visitors were personal souve- 
nirs, gathered by the donor while commanding "Haw- 
kins' Zouaves" during the Civil War, and during the 
years of his acquaintanceship with the leaders of Amer- 
ican public life. 

The University Departments of Biblical Literature 

C 9 J 



Brown University 

and History, Chemistry, Civil Engineering, Germanic 
Languages and Literatures, Mechanical Engineering, 
and Social and Political Science made effective exhibits 
of their work and resources during the anniversary 
week. The Seminary of the Department of Mathemat- 
ics was also open during the same period. 

The various committees, made up from the Faculty, 
the alumni, and citizens of Providence, which were 
formed by the Celebration Committee to share in the 
task of shaping the festival programme, and which sub- 
sequently carried it to a successful conclusion, were as 
follows : 

Finance Committee: Henry D. Sharpe, '94, Chair- 
man ; Edward O.Stanley, '76, Stephen O.Edwards, '79, 
Frank W. Matteson, '92, G. Edward Buxton, Jr., '02. 

Academic Celebration Committee: Professor William 
MacDonald, Chairman; Henry M. King, Professor 
Henry B. Gardner, '84, Professor Walter G. Everett, 
'85, Albert D. Mead, Professor Albert Knight Potter, 
'86, Dr. G. Alder Blumer. 

Dramatic and Musical Committee : Edwin A. Burlin- 
game, Chairman ; Professor George W. Benedict, Rath- 
bone Gardner, '7 7, Jesse H. Metcalf, Frank L. Hinckley, 
'91 , Henry A. Barker, '93, H. Nelson Campbell, Eliot 
G. Parkhurst, '06, Professor Thomas Crosby, Jr., '94, 
Walter H. Kimball, '94, Professor Frederick W. Mar- 
vel, '94, Henry B. Rose, '81 , Herbert L. Dorrance, '07, 
Claude R. Branch, '07, Livingston Ham, '94, Edward 
B. Birge, '91 , John H. Cady, '03, Sidney R. Burleigh. 

Alumni Participation Committee: Archibald C. Mat- 
teson, '93, Chairman; William C. Greene, '75, Dr. 
Frank L. Day, '85, John A. Tillinghast, '95, J. Palmer 
Barstow, '02, Robert B. Jones, '07. 

C 10 J 



A Commemorative Sketch 

Undergraduate Participation Comtnittee: Professor 
Edmund B. Delabarre, Chairman; Professor Albert 
D. Mead, Claude R. Branch, '07. This committee of 
graduates called to its aid the following Committee 
of Undergraduates : Seniors: William P. Sheffield, Jr., 
Chairman; Carl A. Terry, Treasurer; Frederick H. 
Greene, Secretary; William E. Beehan, George F. 
Bliven, William R. Burwell, Ralph W. Cram, Edward 
W. Hincks, Seth K. Mitchell. Juniors: William R.LeR. 
McBee, William N. Ormsby, Frank E. Starrett, Amasa 
F. Williston. Sophomore: Walter K. Sprague. Special: 
William M. Tilton. 

The committees' plan of a complete celebration in- 
cluded University, city, and Commonwealth. In this 
view the anniversary programme, as finally elabo- 
rated comprised a series of academic, athletic, and so- 
cial functions, involving both the academic world and 
the Rhode Island community. The formal academic 
programme was arranged to include a University Ser- 
mon by the President of the University, on Sunday, 
October 1 1 ; addresses on the Religious History of the 
University, on Monday, October 1 2 ; an address on the 
Early History of the University, on Tuesday, October 
13, at Warren, Rhode Island; an Historical Address 
on Wednesday, October 14, in Providence, followed by 
the presentation of delegates from learned institutions; 
a University Address, on Thursday, October 15, at- 
tended by the conferring of honorary degrees ; and on 
Thursday evening a University Dinner with addresses 
by distinguished guests. 

The social programme included several perform- 
ances of a celebration play ; a concert by the Men- 
delssohn Club, of New York ; receptions by the Uni- 

c 11 : 



Brown University 

versity, the Women's College, and the Rhode Island 
School of Design to the visiting delegates and invited 
guests; and a series of organ recitals. Arrangements 
were also made for the active participation of the alumni 
in Class Reunion Luncheons and in a Glee Clubs' Re- 
union Concert ; and of the students in a special Chapel 
Service, with addresses by eminent visitors, and in Ath- 
letic Events on Andrews Field to illustrate the devel- 
opment of physical training in school and college. In 
these athletic events children from the city grammar 
schools and pupils from the college preparatory schools 
of the city and vicinity were also to take part. A Torch- 
light Procession of graduates and undergraduates in 
costume, escorted by the citizen soldiery of the state, 
was to furnish the spectacular and popular feature of 
the anniversary, and emphasize the harmonious rela- 
tions of "town and gown." 

Besides the festival programme thus arranged, the 
Committee on the Academic Celebration issued invita- 
tions to a number of distinguished American and Euro- 
pean scholars to give in Providence, during the autumn 
and winter of 1914-15, courses of lectures in contin- 
uance of the anniversary celebration. The critical ad- 
dresses on literary and scientific subjects delivered 
during that period in response to these invitations 
brought to a fitting close the academic programme for 
the celebration. An account setting forth the names of 
the speakers and their subjects, together with their 
reception in Providence, appears at the end of this 
book. 

Under date of March 1 , 1 9i4,formal invitations were 
issued by the President and Corporation to various 
institutions of learning in foreign countries and in the 



A Commemorative Sketch 

United States, requesting the honor of the presence of 
a delegate from the Faculty or Governing Board of 
each such institution " at exercises in Celebration of the 
One Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding 
of the University, to be held at Providence in the week 
beginning Sunday, the eleventh day of October, nine- 
teen hundred and fourteen." The list of the delegates 
will appear in connection with the account of the Pre- 
sentation of Delegates. Similar invitations were at the 
same time sent to distinguished individuals both within 
and without Rhode Island. Among the invited guests of 
the University, other than delegates from institutions, 
outside Rhode Island were: 

Miss Matty Lucina Beattie, Boston Alumnae Asso- 
ciation ; Professor Charles Edwin Bennett, Cornell Uni- 
versity ; Rev. Howard Allen Bridgman, Boston, Massa- 
chusetts; Rt. Rev. Frederick Burgess, Bishop of Long 
Island; Mr. Andrew Carnegie, New York ; Mr. James 
McKeen Cattell, Society of the Sigma Xi, Newport ; 
Mr. Clark son Abel Collins, New York City Alumni As- 
sociation; Mr. and Mrs. Costello C. Converse, Mai- 
den, Massachusetts; Mr. Charles Allerton Coolidge, 
Boston, Massachusetts ; Mr. Elmer Lawrence Corthell, 
North Egremont, Massachusetts ; Professor Nathaniel 
French Davis, American Mathematical Society; Mr. 
Samuel Coffin Eastman, Concord, New Hampshire; 
Austin B. Fletcher, Esq., New York ; Professor Edwin 
Augustus Grosvenor, Phi Beta Kappa Society; Miss 
Caroline Hazard, Santa Barbara, California ; Mr. George 
Henderson, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Mr. William 
Colver Hill, Connecticut Valley Alumni Association; 
Hon. Charles Evans Hughes, Washington; Mr. Rob- 
ert Underwood Johnson, New York ; Dr. William Wil- 

c 13 n 



Brown University 

liams Keen, American Philosophical Society; Professor 
Charles Foster Kent, Yale University ; Professor Wil- 
liam Kirk, University of Rochester; Mr. William Cool- 
idge Lane, Harvard University Library; Rev. Curtis 
Lee Law^s, New York; Mr. Waldo Lincoln, Ameri- 
can Antiquarian Society ; Arthur Lord, Esq., Plymouth, 
Massachusetts; Professor Hamilton Crawford Mac- 
Dougall,Wellesley College; Professor John Matthews 
Manly, University of Chicago; Mr. Manton Bradley 
Metcalf, Orange, New Jersey; Mr. Romulo S. Naon, 
Ambassador for Argentina ; Dr. Charles Lemuel Nich- 
ols, Worcester, Massachusetts; Mr. Henry Robinson 
Palmer, Washington and New London Counties Alumni 
Association ; Mr. Frederic Alfonso Pezet, Minister for 
Peru ; Professor James Pierpont, American Mathemat- 
ical Society; Dr. Henry Smith Pritchett, Carnegie Foun- 
dation for the Advancement of Teaching; Mr. Herbert 
Putnam, The Library of Congress; Mrs. Freeman Put- 
ney, Jr., New York Alumnae Association; Rev. Au- 
gustus Phineas Reccord, Springfield, Massachusetts; 
Mr. Chester A. Reeds, American Museum of Natural 
History; Mr. James Ford Rhodes, Boston, Massachu- 
setts; Mr. John Davison Rockefeller, Jr., New York; 
Very Rev. Edmund Swett Rousmaniere, Boston, Mas- 
sachusetts; Mr. Franklin Benjamin Sanborn, Concord, 
Massachusetts; Professor Paul Shorey, University of 
Chicago; Professor Frederick Slocum, Wesleyan Uni- 
versity; Mr. Robert Cooper Smith, K.C., Montreal, 
Canada; Mr. Edward Otis Stanley, East Orange, New 
Jersey; Hon. William Howard Taft, Yale University; 
Rev. James Monroe Taylor, Rochester, New York ; 
Mr. Daniel Berkeley Updike, Boston, Massachusetts; 
Miss Alice Wilson Wilcox, The Fairbanks Museum of 



A Commemorative Sketch 

Natural Science; Professor George Grafton Wilson, 
Harvard University. 

On March 25, 1914, the following invitation was sent 
to the General Assembly of Rhode Island : 

To his Excellency, the Governor, and the Honorable, the 
Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Rhode 
Island : 

GENTLEMEN : One hundred and fifty years have passed 
since the charter of Brown University was granted by 
the ' ' General Assembly of the Governor and Company of the 
Enghsh Colony of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations," 
then in session in the town of East Greenwich. The exact date 
of that memorable action by your honorable bodies was March 
the third, 1764, and the University is preparing to celebrate 
its sesquicentennial in the week beginning October the elev- 
enth, 1914. 

Vast changes have come about in these one hundred and 
fifty years. The little English Colony has become a sovereign 
state, united with forty-seven other states in an enduring Re- 
public. Struggling settlements on the edge of the New Eng- 
land wilderness have become populous cities. Great industries 
have here arisen, applying modern science to the satisfaction 
of human needs. Libraries, museums, schools and churches 
have multiplied. Wealth has come to many citizens, know- 
ledge and freedom have come to all. During all these years the 
University has enjoyed the rights and liberties granted in the 
ancient charter, and has found in Rhode Island that perfect 
civil and religious freedom in which alone a University can 
flourish. The State of Rhode Island has been true to its offer 
of protection to the higher education ; we venture to hope that 
the University has not failed in its duty of "preserving in the 
community a succession of men duly qualified for discharging 
the offices of life with usefulness and reputation . ' ' We wish to 
thank the people of this commonwealth, as represented in your 
honorable bodies, for innumerable gifts, not only of material 
things, but of sympathy, confidence and good-will. 

1 15 : 



Brown University 

As we approach our anniversary we wish to renew our 
allegiance to the laws and institutions of Rhode Island, and 
Ave seek still more earnestly to train our students for intelligent 
citizenship and public service. 

We beg to invite your Excellency and your honorable bodies 
to participate in our celebration by your personal presence at 
our festivities in the month of October. 

With respect we beg to remain, sincerely yours, 
W. H. P. Faunce, President 
Arnold Buffum Chace, Chancellor 
Henry Dexter Sharps, Chairman of 
the Committee on Celebration 

The General Assembly passed the following joint re- 
solve in formal reply to this invitation : 

State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations in Gen- 
eral Assembly January Session, a.d. 1914. Joint Resolution 
accepting invitation of Brown University to participate in its 
Sesquicentennial in October, 1914. Approved April 16, 1914. 

Resolved, That the invitation of Brown University, through 
its President, Chancellor, and the Chairman of the Committee 
on Celebration of its Sesquicentennial, to the Senate and House 
of Representatives of the State of Rhode Island to participate 
in said Celebration, be and the same is hereby accepted. 

Resolved, That this General Assembly offers to the Univer- 
sity its hearty congratulations upon the honorable record made 
during the one hundred and fifty years since the charter was 
granted and improves this occasion to testify that the Univer- 
sity has not failed in the duty of ' ' preserving in the community 
a succession of men duly qualified for discharging the offices 
of life with usefulness and reputation." 

Resolved, That the General Assembly is proud of the high 
rank which the University holds among the educational insti- 
tutions of our nation and of the distinction brought to this state 
by the lives and works of its many able and eminent gradu- 
ates, professors and officers, past and present, and appreci- 
ates thoroughly the great service rendered to this state not only 



A Commemorative Sketch 

by these but also by that far greater number, who, while less 
eminent, have been trained by the University to lives of use- 
fulness and service which have helped to give Rhode Island 
the enviable position which she occupies among the states of 
our nation. 

Resolved, That the Assembly extends to the University its 
best wishes for a future even more glorious and useful than 
the past. 

That the Secretary of State is hereby directed to send to the 
President of Brown University a copy of these resolutions, suit- 
ably engrossed and signed by his Excellency the Governor, his 
Honor the Lieutenant-Governor and the Honorable Speaker of 
the House of Representatives. 

The following committees were subsequently appointed by 
His Honor the Lieutenant-Governor, Roswell B. Burchard, 
and the Honorable Frank F. Davis, Speaker of the House of 
Representatives, to represent the General Assembly at the ex- 
ercises of the celebration : 

Senate: Philip H. Wilbour, Ezra Dixon, Edward E. Ar- 
nold, R. Livingston Beeckman, Addison P. Munroe. 

House of Representatives : Frank H. Hammill, Arthur P. 
Sumner, Lewis A. Briggs, David J. White, Albert B. West, 
John B. SuUivan, Albert E. Morrill. 

Providence was en jSte during the week of the Uni- 
versity festivities. The city, to which the block and the 
apartment hotel are comparative strangers, is still 
largely a place of detached homes surrounded each 
by its own lawn and shrubbery. Chancellor William 
Goddard used to quote James Russell Lowell as saying 
that he was always glad to come to Providence, because 
each house had at least "forty feet of respectability 
about it." These homes opened their welcoming arms 
to the learned strangers within their gates. The First 
Baptist Meeting-House, built in 1 775 with the proceeds 
of a lottery, " for the publick Worship of Almighty 

C 17 : 



Brown University 

God; and also for holding Commencement in," re- 
splendent in a fresh coat of white paint and newly 
garnished within, stood ready on the hillside for the 
approaching festivities. Flags flew over the roofs of the 
hospitable city during the celebration, and everywhere 
Brown ribbons were in evidence. College Street, freed 
at last from its grinding car-tracks, was festooned with 
chains of laurel from Benefit Street to the Van Wickle 
Gates, along either side and at intervals across the road- 
way, while the erstwhile trolley poles and electric light 
posts were similarly enchained with wreaths and spi- 
rals. At the John Hay Library the terrace railing was 
looped with laurel and garlanded with pots of greenery 
picked out with bright-hued berries. The Van Wickle 
Gates guarding the main entrance were decorated with 
wreaths and festooned with leafy chains interspersed 
with electric lights for evening display. The fence and 
the remaining gates were in turn hung with laurel fes- 
toons from post to post, each post itself bearing pots of 
greenery splashed with color, while the campus was 
hung with many-hued Japanese lanterns for occasional 
illumination. 

The various clubs in and around Providence hospit- 
ably extended their facilities to visitors and friends of 
members. The courtesies of the University Club, the 
Hope Club, the Providence Art Club, the Turk's Head 
Club, the Rhode Island Country Club, the Agawam 
Hunt Club, the Wannamoisett Country Club, and the 
Metacomet Golf Club were offered to the guests of 
the University for the period of the Celebration. The 
Brown Union in Rockefeller Hall also was open to 
guests of the University during the same period. 

Anniversary week was appropriately anticipated by 

n 18 ] 



A Commemorative Sketch 

the Warren Pageant. The citizens of that historic town, 
originally a part of Welsh-settled Swansea in Massa- 
chusetts, in addition to academic exercises, prepared a 
sylvan pageant to mark at once the founding of the 
town in 1 746, the formation of the First Baptist Church, 
and the location there of the college in 1764. The 
pageant was staged at " Maxwelton," the charming es- 
tate of Mr. James Maxwell Wheaton, bordering on" the 
Sowams River of the Pilgrims" and looking out upon 
Narragansett Bay. The leading people of Warren and 
vicinity and of the parent town of Swansea, men and 
matrons, young men and maidens, including the Prin- 
cess Wootonekanuske, a lineal descendant of Massa- 
soit, with school children, — nine hundred in all, — sym- 
bolized on this rural stage, under the skilled direction 
of Miss Margaret MacLaren Eager, the experiences, 
the hardships, and the successes of the town's first set- 
tlers and their worthy descendants. The first represen- 
tation of this interesting attempt to visualize the town's 
past history was given on Friday afternoon, ninth Oc- 
tober. Repetitions followed on the afternoons of Sat- 
urday and Monday, tenth and twelfth October. They 
were witnessed by throngs of delighted spectators from 
within and without the town, including many comers 
to Brown for the forthcoming commemoration. Serene 
and cloudless October skies smiled upon the succes- 
sive performances, emphasized each day by the open- 
ing prelude symbolically featuring a misty morning 
on Narragansett Bay, upon which the "Spirits of the 
Mists" were scattered by the rising of the "South 
Wind." The pageantry thus introduced proceeded to 
picture a succession of historical episodes in the life of 
the town, interspersed with legendary interludes, and 

I 19] 



Brown University 

closing with a finale, a prophecy in symbol of "The 
Warren of To-morrow." In the earlier episodes, laid 
at " Sowams in Pokanoket," were depicted the friendli- 
ness of Massasoit and the Wampanoags toward the Pil- 
grim Fathers and Roger Williams seeking shelter, the 
death of Massasoit, and the destruction of "Sowams" 
by the Indians. The settling of the Welsh in Swansea, 
the setting-off of the township of Warren, the loca- 
tion in the town of the newly chartered institution, 
with a sketch of "the first Commencement Exercises" 
were the themes treated in a second group of episodes. 
The plight of Warren during the American Revolution 
was the subject of a succeeding group, showing "the 
forming of the trainband" — "The alarm men" — "The 
artillery," and the havoc in the town created by the 
king's troops, and depicting "Lafayette's headquar- 
ters in Warren in 1 778 " and " General Washington at 
Burr's Tavern." The glories of "maritime Warren," 
when the town was second only to Salem in sea-borne 
commerce, were emphasized in later scenes, showing 
"The launching of the General Greene," "The return 
of a merchantman," "The Warren Fire Department in 
1 802," with the ancient hand-tub " Hero," and "An ar- 
tillery ball in the'50's," in which descendants in the rare 
old costumes of ancestors stepped the reels and contra- 
dances of an earlier day. "Industrial Warren" of the 
present day merging into the finale, "The Warren of 
To-morrow," symbolically indicated by the various in- 
dustries and nationalities settled in this town, brought 
the spectacle to a close. 

The town of Warren devoted four days in all to cele- 
brating its important share in the establishment of the 
college, for the permanent possession of which ambi- 

C 20 J 



A Commemorative Sketch 

tious rivals fought and which one of them succeeded 
in obtaining. The pageantry of the first three days in- 
volved the interested participation of a large section of 
the townspeople and gave delight equally to the parti- 
cipants and to their audiences. The formal exercises of 
Tuesday, thirteenth October, emphasized through the 
address by Dr. William W. Keen, of Philadelphia, on 
" The Early Years of Brown University ( 1 764-1 7 70 ) ," 
the intimate connection between the University and the 
First Baptist Church, the building of which made it 
possible to locate the infant college in the town, and 
place both church and college under the wise leadership 
of James Manning. 

Commemoration week was formally ushered in at 
Providence on Sunday and Monday, eleventh and 
twelfth October, with religious observances. On Sunday 
afternoon divine service was held in the First Baptist 
Meeting-House on North Main Street with a sermon 
by President Faunce upon the religious foundation of 
the University and its devotion to the public service. 
The singing by the chorus from the Arion Club, under 
the lead of Dr. Jules Jordan, formed an impressive addi- 
tion to the service. The audience, made up of graduates, 
delegates, invited guests, and townspeople, filled every 
seat in the historic edifice. The arrangements for usher- 
ing, as for all the academic functions of the week, were 
in charge of Professor John B. Dunning, who was as- 
sisted by students, graduates, and members of the Fac- 
ulty. During the day other special addresses relating to 
the University were delivered in various churches in 
the city. 

Theacademic programmefor Monday, in both morn- 
ing and afternoon, was made up of addresses on Reli- 

C 21 2 



Brown University 

gious Education by representatives of the four denomi- 
nations which codperated in the founding of the Uni- 
versity. At the morning session the Rev. Clarence A. 
Barbour presided, and addresses were made by the Rt. 
Rev. Frederick Burgess, on "The University and the 
Christian Ministry," and by the Rev. George E. Horr, 
on "The University and Christian Missions." At the 
afternoon session the Rev. Thomas D. Anderson pre- 
sided, and there were addresses by President Edgar Y. 
Mullins, on the "Baptists and Education," by President 
Isaac Sharpless,on "Quaker Ideals in Education," by 
President John M. Thomas, on "The Puritan Basis of 
Education," and by the Rt. Rev. James DeW. Perry, on 
"Religious Education in the Modern College." Deeply 
interested audiences were present in Sayles Memorial 
Hall and listened to illuminating discussions of the rela- 
tion of church and college, or to sketches of great reli- 
gious leaders whose portraits, many of them, looked 
down from the walls upon the assembly. In an age 
when the university is sometimes supposed to be swing- 
ing away from the church it was fitting that Brown Uni- 
versity should thus publicly avow its historic debt to the 
Christian communions that gave it birth. 

On Monday noon a series of recitals on the college 
organ in Sayles Memorial Hall was begun by Gene 
Wilder Ware, '06, Organist and Director of Chapel 
Music, whose discriminating programmes, performed 
each noon during the festival, added greatly to the 
pleasure of the many who attended them. 

The opening performance of the Celebration Play, 
which took place on Monday evening at the Providence 
Opera House, was the first of a series of social func- 
tions for the entertainment of the members of the Uni- 
[ 22 ] 



A Commemorative Sketch 

versity, their friends and visitors. The audience on the 
first night was made up chiefly of members of the Cor- 
poration and Faculty, and of guests of the University in 
Providence and vicinity. Tw^o more representations later 
in the week were provided for the benefit of the alumni, 
and of delegates and invited guests from a distance with 
their hosts and hostesses. The special committee in 
charge consisted of Edwin A. Burlingame, Chairman ; 
Rathbone Gardner, Henry A. Barker, and Professor 
Thomas Crosby, Jr. This dramatic production was made 
possible by the cooperation of the amateur actors in the 
city and University. This " play within a play in a theatre 
within a theatre," reflecting the mid-eighteenth cen- 
tury feeling for and against the theatre, with casts made 
up largely to represent historical personages, formed 
an effective part of the festival programme. 

Tuesday might well have been called Alumni Day. 
So many of the alumni and alumnae had by that date 
arrived in Providence to " live their bright college days 
over again" that the day was largely devoted on its 
social side to class reunions. The University Club was 
naturally the scene of many of these, but the hotels, 
other clubs, and residences of classmates shared in the 
festivities. They were entirely informal, and consisted 
mostly of song and reminiscence. One class gave a lov- 
ing cup to that member who had traveled " the further- 
est to get to the reunion," and a piece of silver to the 
one first sending a son to Brown. Many of the alumni 
marched in the torchlight parade. The graduates of the 
Women's College joined during the evening in their 
sixth Brown Alumnae Dinner in the Sayles Gymna- 
sium. The undergraduates participated in the festivi- 
ties at tables set "in the running track" in the balcony. 

C 23 ;] 



Brown University 

Miss Sarah Elizabeth Doyle and Miss Mary Colman 
Wheeler were guests of honor. At the dinner, Miss 
Sarah Gridley Ross, '05, President of the Alumnae, in- 
troduced Miss Emily Gardner Munro, '98, as toast- 
mistress. The Annie Crosby Emery Fellowship Fund 
of three thousand dollars, it was announced, was two- 
thirds raised. Dean Lida Shaw King welcomed to the 
dinner the guests and the alumnae. President Mary 
Emma Woolley, '94, of Mount Holyoke College, em- 
phasized "our debt to Brown." President M. Carey 
Thomas, of Bryn Mawr College, spoke of the pleasant 
relations existing between the two colleges, saying that 
" Brown girls appeared to have a first mortgage upon 
the Bryn Mawr European Scholarships." Miss Almira 
Bashford Coffin, of the Senior class, spoke for the stu- 
dents. Professor Otis Everett Randall, '84, Dean of the 
University, spoke of the loyalty of the graduates of the 
Women's College, and of the support the latter had 
received from the University. 

At five o'clock in the afternoon of Tuesday a Glee 
Clubs' Reunion Concert was given on the terrace of 
Rockefeller Hall overlooking the middle campus. Ben- 
jamin Stanley Webb, '92, was the leader of the chorus, 
and Roy Cleveland Phinips,'i5, was the accompanist. 
John Young, '95, was the tenor soloist. The chorus was 
made up of graduates from 1868 to 1912, and of under- 
graduates. Old and new college songs were sung, the 
concert ending with " Alma Mater." 

In the torchlight procession of Tuesday evening 
Brown came fully up to its reputation as "the parading- 
est" of colleges. The illuminated campus was thronged 
early and late with paraders and onlookers. The side- 
walks of the city along the route of march were lined 

C 24 ] 



A Commemorative Sketch 

with delighted spectators. The procession was most 
effective in its contrasts, the untorched military escort 
being an excellent foil to the college division with its 
flaring torches, blazing transparencies, roman candles, 
and flaming sticks of red fire. Within the military divi- 
sion the khaki of the Coast Artillery contrasted with 
the plain blue of the other national guardsmen, while 
against both stood out the showier uniforms of the 
chartered companies. The undergraduate division in 
its mixture of aborigines, early settlers, and native and 
foreign soldiers and sailors, presented in symbol a 
kaleidoscopic picture of the early years of colony, 
state, and University. The very effective costumes worn 
by the students, and elsewhere fully described, were 
designed by William Martin Tilton, a graduate of the 
Rhode Island School of Design, and a member of the 
Undergraduates' Celebration Committee. The march- 
ing of the procession down College Street to Benefit 
Street was a sight long to be remembered. The under- 
graduate body varied the return route of march by 
passing through the street-car tunnel, from which, 
smooched with soot, blinded by smoke, and choked 
with reek, the students emerged not so handsome, not 
less lively, but certainly wiser young men. 

The academic procession of Wednesday, fourteenth 
October, grouped together for the first time the schol- 
ars from learned institutions at home and abroad and 
the other eminent visitors gathered to do honor to 
Brown University. The procession, as with mortar- 
board, variegated hood, and solemn gown it wended its 
sinuous way to the ancient Meeting-House from the 
college on the hill, under the cloudless sky of a golden 
October day, presented an appearance at once digni- 
C 25 ] 



Brown University 

fied, effective, and long to be remembered by the for- 
tunate spectator. The Historical Address by Mr. Jus- 
tice Hughes, '8 1 , laid special emphasis upon the gift by 
the college to the community and to the country of so 
long a line of trained, forceful, and cultivated citizens. 
The Presentation of Delegates to the President and 
Chancellor was a dignified function, and gave oppor- 
tunity for the delivery of numerous congratulatory ad- 
dresses. A University Luncheon at noon at the Lyman 
Gymnasium and Rockefeller Hall and a University 
Reception in Sayles Memorial Hall at the end of the 
afternoon brought together at each function a brilliant 
company of delegates, invited guests, members of the 
University, and alumni. 

The concert by the Mendelssohn Club,of New York, 
on Wednesday evening, at Infantry Hall, was a gra- 
cious and charming compliment alike to the University 
and to the city of Providence. Only three times before 
in its long and notable history had this famous choir of 
men's voices given concerts away from home: twice in 
Boston, at the inception of the Apollo Club and later to 
assist that club in celebrating its twenty-fifth anniver- 
sary; and once in Philadelphia to sing with the Apollo 
Club there. The concert was notable as an artistic and 
musical success, giving unalloyed pleasure to the large 
and enthusiastic audience of members of the Univer- 
sity and their guests. The soloists were, John Young, 
'95, the tenor, William Denham Tucker, the bari- 
tone, and Frank Croxton, the basso. After the concert 
the club was entertained at the Providence Art Club 
by Edwin A. Burlingame and H. Nelson Campbell, 
of the committee, and there again sang informally. 
On the following day the club was given a Rhode Is- 
C 26 : 



A Commemorative Sketch 

land Clam Bake at the Squantum Club by John Carter 
Brown Woods, '72, Edward Carrington, '73, William 
Ely, '78, Edward Francis Ely, '79, and Horatio Rogers 
Nightingale, '83. After the dinner the club sang for the 
pleasure of their hosts and friends. 

A charming reception was tendered to the visiting 
delegates and invited guests at the Rhode Island School 
of Design on Wednesday evening after the concert. 
The reception was the first given at the school since 
the opening of the special loan exhibition of early 
American art, already described, and was attended by 
a large and distinguished company. In the receiving line 
were the following trustees of the school: Mrs. Gustav 
Radeke, Jesse H. Metcalf, Theodore Francis Green, 
'87, Miss Lida Shaw King, Dr. G. Alder Blumer, See- 
ber Edwards, '91, Howard Hoppin, Harold Webster 
Ostby, Henry Dexter Sharpe, '94, Howard O. Sturges, 
and the director, Louis Earle Rowe, '04. 

A special chapel service for the student body, to which 
only members of the University were invited,began the 
anniversary programme of Thursday, fourteenth Octo- 
ber, the final day of the festival. President Faunce pre- 
sided, and introduced William Paine Sheffield, Jr., of the 
Senior class. President of the Cammarian Club, who said 
that "from the standpoint of the students, the most im- 
portant result of the celebration would be a clearer un- 
derstanding of the life of Brown University." Mr. John 
D. Rockefeller, Jr., '97, followed, and spoke upon the 
necessity and value of application in the life of students. 
Hon. William H. Taft summarized the rich traditions 
clustering about Brown, and congratulated students and 
alumni on being connected with so famous an Alma 
Mater. President Frank Johnson Goodnow, of Johns 

C 27 ] 



Brown University 

Hopkins University, spoke of the spirit of cooperation 
which has characterized the history of Brown Univer- 
sity. President Jacob Gould Schurman, of Cornell Uni- 
versity, was the last speaker, giving as his impression 
of Brown that it was a university of men. The exercises 
closed with the singing of a stanza of "Alma Mater." 

The second academic procession to the Meeting- 
House for the University Address and the Conferring 
of Degrees was as noteworthy in its personnel and 
striking in its color-scheme as that of the previous day. 
Principal Peterson in the University Address empha- 
sized the importance of a study of the humanities and 
mathematics in the training of the citizen. After the 
return of the procession to the campus and its disper- 
sal the visiting delegates and invited guests were en- 
tertained at luncheon by the Women's College at the 
Sayles Gymnasium. The committee in charge of the 
luncheon were Mrs. Albert Granger Harkness, Mrs. 
Elisha H. Howard, and Miss Louise C. Hoppin. 

The lively athletic programme carried out on An- 
drews Field on the afternoon of Thursday was novel 
as regards the children, and exhilarating and pleasing 
in all its features to the great audience of alumni and 
college guests there assembled. The children had pro- 
vided their own costumes and equipment,studyingtheir 
parts out of school hours and carrying out the ideas 
they had imbibed of the beginnings of Rhode Island. 
"The salute to the flag," as executed by them, is given 
every morning at the opening of every school in Provi- 
dence. After their part of the exercises was over the 
children remained, delighted spectators of the sports, 
as guests of the University. 

The races, participated in by the pupils in the pre- 
C 28 J 



A Commemorative Sketch 

paratory schools and the collegians, were run off in a 
spirited manner, and the outcome of the football game 
between Brown and Wesleyan was very satisfactory 
to a Brown audience. The committee in charge of the 
sports comprised Professor Frederick William Marvel, 
Henry Brayton Rose, '81, and Herbert Larned Dor- 
rance, '07. 

The University Dinner of Thursday evening brought 
the college celebration to a successful and dignified con- 
clusion. In the after-dinner speaking Governor Pothier 
represented the State of Rhode Island, President Low- 
ell, the American Institutions, Archdeacon Cunning- 
ham, Foreign Institutions, Ambassador Naon, South 
America, Mr. Robert Cooper Smith, K.C., Canada, Hon. 
William H. Taft, the Country at Large, and President 
Faunce, the University. From the invocation of Presi- 
dent Faunce at the opening service on Sunday to the 
Latin farewell of Dr. Keen, the presiding officer at the 
dinner of Thursday, every function had passed off 
agreeably under perfect weather conditions, to the de- 
hght and pride of the alumni and friends of Brown. 

This commemorative sketch is an attempt merely 
to outline what was in all respects a dignified, diversi- 
fied, and adequate celebration, the nature and satisfying 
character of which will further appear in the pages fol- 
lowing. " What Brown means to those who know it 
best, who have been associated with it as teachers, stu- 
dents, and friends, could hardly be put upon the printed 
page. Each building is a silent reminder, every class- 
room has its store of traditions. Around the American 
college, particularly around this old New England col- 
lege, rich memories cluster and, like the ivies on its mel- 
lowing structures, increase with every passing year." 

C 29 ^ 



II 

The Celebration 



The University Sermon 

ON Sunday, eleventh October, the University Ser- 
mon was delivered by the President of the Uni- 
versity, the Rev. William Herbert Perry Faunce, D.D., 
LL.D., in the First Baptist Meeting-House, at four 
o'clock. 

The service began with an organ prelude, — Beetho- 
ven's "Andante from the Fifth Symphony," — played 
by Miss Emma J. Williams. Prayer was offered by the 
Rev. John Frederick Vichert, D.D. : 

WE praise Thee,0 God, we acknowledge Thee to 
be the Lord. All the earth doth worship Thee, the 
Father everlasting. Accept our praise and worship, we 
pray Thee, and look favorably upon us as we offer our 
petitions. We give Thee thanks this day for the light and 
life which were manifested unto us in Jesus Christ. We 
thank Thee for all the service He has inspired and for all 
the light He has kindled in the world. We thank Thee 
for all institutions which have sought to extend the shin- 
ing of that light and which have given to men clearer 
insight, fuller knowledge. Especially do we thank Thee 
for the college at whose call we meet to-day. We thank 
Thee for the years in her history with all they have held 
and with all their rich fruitage. We thank Thee for the 
memories that come crowding out of the past. May they 
kindle inspiration, waken hope, and strengthen effort, 
until we shall be able to make the present and all the 
future noble, worthy of the past, useful unto men, and 
acceptable in Thy sight. To that end bless the service 
of this hour. Grant grace and wisdom unto Thy ser- 
vant who shall speak to us. Grant unto us hearing ears 
C 33 ] 



Brown University 

and understanding hearts. Bless all the exercises of 
the week, and grant that through all there may come 
strength to Thy servants and honor unto Him whose we 
are and whom we serve, for Thy name's sake. Amen. 

The anthem by Edmund Turner, " Great and Mar- 
vellous are Thy Works," was then sung by a chorus 
selected from the Arion Club, under the direction of 
Jules Jordan, Mus. Doc. This chorus was composed as 
follows : 

Sopranos: Mrs. Sarah Aldrich, Mrs. M. P. Bates, 
Miss Minette Beckwith, Miss Grace Berquist, Mrs. 
W. F. Bevan, Miss Edna Barck, Miss Esther Carlson, 
Mrs. S. H. Clemence, Mrs. W. H. Clough, Miss Ellen 
A. Day, Miss Mary E. Dunham, Miss Edwina Hodge- 
kiss, Miss Teresa McCabe, Miss Lucy M. Peirce, Mrs. 
J. H. Lloyd. 

Altos: Mrs. D. Berquist, Miss Alice Darling, Miss 
Grace B. Davis, Miss Bertha Hitt, Miss Faith McCor- 
mack. Miss Ada Smith, Miss Marion Whittle, Mrs. 
Eugene Medbery, Mrs. R. A. Young. 

Tenors: George W. Ansell, Jesse T. Baker, Roderick 
Beaudreau, George A. Freeman, Arthur Hunt, John 
Loxsom, John McVay, Walter E. Rogers, Robert J. 
Tupper, Charles Walker, Harry Wigley. 

Basses: Samuel D. Baker, Butler L. Church, F. O. 
Clapp, William Estes, A. H. Ebeling, H. Humphrey, 
A. D. Hawkinson, Edward F. Hunt, C. Lindquist, James 
E. McStay, Edward Lariviere, W. F. McOscar, Charles 
H. Richards, Norman Smith, M. J. Sullivan, C.Wilson 
Stan wood, Herbert Wilkinson. 

The Lesson was read by the Rev. Dr. Vichert, and 
was followed by the singing of Bishop Heber's hymn, 
C 34 J 



The University Sermon 

" Holy, Holy, Holy ! Lord God Almighty," by the con- 
gregation. 

The University Sermon was then delivered by Presi- 
dent Faunce. 

Psalm 121 : 8. The Lord shall preser-ve thy going out and thy 
coming in, from this time forth and even forever. 

THY going out and thy coming in — those two 
phrases describe the critical times in our human 
experience. Much of our life must be uneventful, placid, 
commonplace. But the going out and the coming in, the 
starting and the stopping, the farewell and the arrival, 
— these crises of existence stir the deeps within us and 
unseal the fountains of laughter or of tears. 

Much of an ocean voyage is uneventful, even monot- 
onous. There is nothing in particular to do, nothing to 
record, nothing to see, save the vast sky above us and 
the waste of waters around us. But the day when we 
sailed on our first voyage, the going out from the dock, 
when the screw churned the waters white, and friends 
waved a last farewell, and America receded in the mist, 
— we shall not soon forget that. And the coming in at 
some foreign port, the sight of the foreign flags and the 
swarthy faces, and the sound of the jargon of strange 
tongues, — that arrival in a far-away land made an im- 
pression we can never lose. 

But the real departures in life are not geographical. 
They are changes not of place, but of temper and ideal. 
They are migrations of the spirit. The real exits and en- 
trances are for the individual the transition from youth 
to mature age, or from old opinions to new. The real 
going out of a nation is the expression of its soul in 
new institutions that far outlast their founders, and fur- 
C 35 D • 



Brown University 

nish explorers and captains for new adventures in the 
spiritual realm. 

Our thoughts turn back this week to the heroic age 
of America, when a people poor in purse, exiled from 
ancient seats of Old World culture, founded their first 
colleges, establishing nine of them before the Ameri- 
can Revolution. The heart of the nation went forth 
in sacrificial devotion to those nine feeble, strug- 
gling schools. "One of the first things we longed for 
and looked after," says the quaint narrative, " was to 
advance learning and perpetuate it to posterity." So 
essential were these colleges to the national life, so in- 
destructible was the principle they enshrined, that all 
of them — Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Prince- 
ton, Pennsylvania, Columbia, Brown, Rutgers, Dart- 
mouth — are to-day alive and vigorous, and girding 
themselves for the centuries to follow. Why were they 
established ? What conviction and impulsion lay behind 
this efflorescence of colonial life .? The impulsion was 
twofold : religious faith and devotion to public service. 

In all but one of the nine pre-Revolutionary col- 
leges the dominant impulse was religious faith. To ex- 
tend that faith among white men or Indians, to nourish 
it by sound learning, to equip it with a competent min- 
istry, was one great aim of the colonial education. Early 
New England life was religious to the core. It was true 
of the builders of our first colleges, as of those who 
" groined the aisles of ancient Rome," that " themselves 
from God they could not free." But religion is a crea- 
tive force — the greatest known to history. Whether re- 
ligion shall create good or evil depends on the kind of 
religion — create something it must. The worst things 
in human history are the offspring of religion, and the 
C 36 J 



The University Sermon 

best things as well. Religion has created tyrannies, 
wars, and autos-da-fe, and also cathedrals, hospitals, 
and schools. The moment it ceases to create, it begins 
to die. 

Yet most religions have given no impulse to learn- 
ing. They have exalted cult or ceremony, which can 
best be performed without analysis. President Wilson 
rightly affirms that " scholarship has never been asso- 
ciated with any religion except the religion of Jesus 
Christ." But under the Puritan interpretation of Chris- 
tianity schools were absolutely essential. The Puritans 
dealt directly with man's intelligence. They reasoned of 
temperance, righteousness, and judgment. They em- 
phasized the intellectual elements in religion, almost to 
the exclusion of the sensuous or emotional or sacra- 
mental. They tested all truth by the Bible, whose vast 
and varied literature, covering fifteen hundred years 
of history, demanded high intelligence for its under- 
standing. Such a religion could not thrive except in 
an atmosphere intellectually keen and bracing. There- 
fore this ancient meeting-house was built " for the pub- 
lick Worship of Almighty God ; and also for holding 
Commencement in," since a worship which consisted 
in high thinking about the Highest could not survive 
apart from institutions in which men are trained to 
think. 

Now a religious origin does one important thing for 
any institution: it gives breadth of outlook and univer- 
sality of appeal. Religion at least means a sense of the 
relation of all men and all things to one another and 
to the infinite. I know how religion has been perverted 
into sectarianism and has given up to party what was 
meant for mankind. Yet a vital religious impulsion 

: 37 : 



Brown University 

ultimately means for any institution release from the 
petty, the personal, and the parochial ; it means that all 
our works shall be "begun, continued, and ended" in 
God. Such a school cannot be a mere local school, since 
all who share the religious faith are interested in the 
enterprise. It is saved from belonging to one party, one 
race, one stratum of society, since religion overflows all 
such boundaries. It is saved from crass materialism, 
since the faith is ever affirming the value of the soul. 
It is saved from mere bread-and-butter education, since 
even the most iron-bound church catechism puts in its 
forefront the sonorous question : " What is the chief end 
of man .'' " An institution that springs out of the heart of 
faith is necessarily the home of idealism, of universal 
truths and far horizons, of boundless hope and bound- 
less sacrifice. The astonishing thing about the colonial 
colleges was the greatness of their ideas coexisting 
with the slenderness of their resources. That greatness 
was born of religious faith. 

The Brown University charter therefore speaks with 
the accent of those who have surveyed the past and are 
planning for the ages to come. When "liberal " was es- 
teemed a dangerous word, — as it still is in some quar- 
ters, — the charter applied that word to the college that 
was to be. When "Catholic" was esteemed a sectarian 
appellation, the charter claimed the word, and fearlessly 
described the new college as both liberal and Catholic 
— terms which I think no other college in America has 
ever used to describe itself. When science — at least in 
the sense of physical science — was esteemed hostile to 
the Bible and to morals, our charter calmly announced: 
" The public teaching shall in general respect the sci- 
ences." When in one colonial college every teacher 
C 38 ] 



The University Sermon 

was obliged to prove his orthodoxy by subscribing to 
the Saybrook platform, and in another every teacher 
must sign the Thirty-Nine Articles before entering any 
class-room, our charter quietly insisted: "There shall 
never be admitted any religious tests, but all the mem- 
bers hereof shall forever enjoy full, free, absolute, and 
uninterrupted liberty of conscience" — where the legal 
phrases take on a lyric tone, defying misconstruction 
and scorning consequence. 

Thus did the founders speak with the accents of great 
men living in a great era. The denomination chiefly con- 
cerned in the founding had no ecclesiastical machinery 
by which to control the college, even if it had wished 
to do so. Throughout our long history no ecclesias- 
tical body has ever attempted to choose our teachers, 
or mould our teaching, or direct our policy. Many col- 
leges have obtained this freedom with a great price ; but 
Brown was free-born. As Rhode Island gave to all the 
colonies an example of freedom of conscience within a 
civil state, so Brown gave to all the colleges one of the 
earliest examples of full freedom of teaching within a 
Christian institution. Long before Lehrfreiheit was pro- 
claimed in Germany it was advocated and enjoined on 
Narragansett Bay. The great phrases of our founders 
would not be used in any charter that we might write 
to-day. We have learned the dangers of freedom and 
we are busy with safeguards and defenses against abuse. 
But our fathers were then in the midst of the struggle 
with Europe. Freedom could be guarded later — it must 
be asserted at once. So they made in the name of reli- 
gion one of the noblest assertions in academic history, 
and we their children have hardly yet caught up vdth 
their style of thought and speech. Colonial thinking, 
[ S9 ] 



Brown University 

like colonial architecture, has a simplicity and ease and 
assurance which we can admire but seldom reproduce. 

A second impulse in the founding of the early 
colleges was devotion to public service. The founders 
seemed to have studied Milton's great description of 
education as "that which fits a man to perform justly, 
skilfully and magnanimously all the offices, both pub- 
lic and private, of peace and war . . . stirred up with 
high hopes of living to be brave men and worthy pa- 
triots, dear to God and famous to all ages." The same 
spirit breathes in the first sentence of the Brown char- 
ter, where the object of a college is said to be "pre- 
serving in the community a succession of men duly 
qualified for discharging the offices of life with useful- 
ness and reputation." 

The founders of our colleges were not afraid of 
the word "useful." Again and again they repeat it in 
various charters. The colonial colleges were truly voca- 
tional. Latin was studied because needed in diplomacy, 
in law, in divinity, in all the higher ranges of effort. 
Mathematics was almost ignored, because not obvi- 
ously needed. Language and logic, analysis and synthe- 
sis, thought and its expression in speech, — this was the 
staple of instruction. But if this was vocational, it aimed 
at what was then the broadest of human vocations. 
The Puritan preacher was orator, philosopher, man 
of letters, publicist, social arbiter, and a college which 
fitted him for his vocation was really giving a large 
and generous training for the service of the state. The 
curriculum aimed not at an immediate livelihood, but at 
a rounded and serviceable life. It taught young men to 
think in terms of nations and continents. It nourished 
public spirit, it stimulated debate on constitutional ques- 

C 40 ] 



The University Sermon 

tions, it made the student both politician and patriot, 
and the college career opened directly into the coun- 
cils of the state. 

At a later date the college swung away from this 
ideal, and aimed at a culture dissevered from service. 
Now we are returning to the idea of the fathers, that 
there can be no culture apart from purpose. When pur- 
pose informs and energizes the college, then culture is 
saved from dilettantism, then learning gets a new grip 
on life, and the college becomes not a finishing school, 
but a genuine commencement. Our schools of finance, 
of political science, our courses in social service, in di- 
plomacy, in teacher-training, instead of being false to 
the colonial idea of education are really a return to the 
conviction that only purposive study can give true cul- 
ture — provided the purpose be broad and deep. 

No wonder that from such colleges came the lead- 
ers of early America. Four-fifths of those who signed 
the Declaration of Independence had received a liberal 
education. From the Harvard yard the student patriots 
marched in squads to Bunker Hill. Old Nassau Hall 
at Princeton was battered by cannon and the students 
were driven out to do or die. Our own University Hall 
was for years closed to study and open only to the army 
of defense. Out of the twenty-five hundred college 
graduates in America at the outbreak of the Revolution 
came in large measure the minds that controlled the 
country both on fields of debate and fields of battle. To 
such men learning was, in the stately phrases of Lord 
Bacon, "not a terrace for a wandering and variable 
mind to walk up and down with a fair prospect ; ... or 
a shop for profit or sale; . . . but a rich storehouse for 
the glory of the creator and the relief of man's estate." 
C41 ] 



Brown University 

Immense tenacity of purpose, a lofty utilitarianism, 
marked the earliest colleges of America. Learning was 
not a species of self-indulgence. It was a girding of 
young loins for the service of the nation. 

Are we wrong, are we merely superstitious, if we 
hold that those early leaders, passing through our 
American colleges, have left a portion of themselves 
behind.'' It is not only ivy that clings to ancient walls 
— it is memories, echoes, inspirations. The very stones 
cry out a summons. The weathered bricks become ar- 
ticulate. The portrait shows us eyes still radiant and hps 
that, being dead, yet speak. In the rooms where Henry 
Wheaton, Adoniram Judson, and John Hay studied 
does a presence still abide.? Are those fresh young voices 
still recorded on the arches of this ancient meeting- 
house, as on phonographic disks, where they may yet 
become audible? Is an aura left by the departing per- 
sonality, as odors cling after flowers are gone.'' Mere 
superstition, says the rationalist. Very well: we will be 
rational. But we turn from the rationalist to the poet 
Wordsworth, describing the University of Cambridge: 

''''Imagination slept^ 
And yet not utterly. I could not print 
Ground -where the grass had yielded to the steps 
Of generations of illustrious men 
Unmoved. I could not always lightly pass 
Through the same gateways., sleep where they had slept., 
Wake where they had waked., range that enclosure old., 
That garden of great intellects., undisturbed?'' 

Such was the going out of our American colleges, pre- 
served and guided by unseen power. And what of the 
coming in, part of which we are permitted to witness, 
and in which we share.? Is the arrival worthy of the high 

C 42 ] 



The University Sermon 

hopes with which the vessel sailed ? Into what have our 
colleges come, either deliberately or unawares? 

It is a serious matter that the colleges which started 
amid national penury have come into an era of ever- 
expanding national wealth. They have entered, like Is- 
rael, into a land of" wells that thou diggedst not, vine- 
yards and olive-trees which thou plantedst not." If our 
land does not flow with milk and honey, it flows with 
mighty water-powers, with stores of petroleum, with 
the product of blast-furnace and dynamo and loom. An 
enormous expansion of territory and of human control 
over material things has transformed our civilization. 
The colleges have grown with the country they repre- 
sent, and change of size often means subtle change of 
quality and ideal. All around us are rising new labora- 
tories, libraries, dormitories. We are equipped with sta- 
diums that vie with the Roman Colosseum ; with pools 
of clear water entered by marble porches like those of 
Caracalla ; with towers that recall the outlines of Mag- 
dalen College or the resurgent campanile of Venice ; 
with gates that swing open on fair homes for favored 
youth. If Socrates in his old ironic mood were to visit 
us, would he cry out once again: "How many things 
there are I do not need".^ 

Certainly the institutions that were once tested by 
poverty are now being tested by a luxurious civiliza- 
tion around them. The students are under a severe test. 
The student disorders and rebellions of a century ago 
have disappeared. College vices have greatly dimin- 
ished. But college distractions have multiplied to an 
alarming degree. In the last ten years probably as 
many students in American colleges have been demor- 
alized by the automobile as by alcohol. The dazzling 

[ 43 ;] 



Brown University 

attractions of a luxury-loving age, the dissipations of 
energy which destroy the power to focus the mind, con- 
stitute the greatest present danger to American educa- 
tion. We are obliged to remove the sons and daughters 
from some of our best homes in order to give them an 
education. We are obliged to warn our students not only 
against the vices of the underworld, but against the 
distractions and follies of the upper world. The scholar 
should have at least as rigorous a training as the athlete. 
Enervating pleasures, late hours, conversation without 
ideas or ideals — this is not the atmosphere in which a 
strong man can run a race. 

And our teachers also are being tested. Can we of 
the Faculty still keep the soul on top.? Can we survive 
material success.'' We are tempted to imagine that a 
greater library automatically involves a greater love 
of books. We are tempted to forget that the greatest 
discoveries have sometimes come out of the shabbiest 
apology for an intellectual workshop. We forgetFrank- 
lin's equipment of a kite-string and a key. We forget 
Charles Darwin's five years on the Beagle, a vessel 
of two hundred and thirty-five tons, where he slept on 
a table and peered through a microscope in the poop- 
cabin. Still intellectual life is propagated from soul to 
soul, and not from apparatus. Still the interested teacher 
is interesting, whatever his equipment. Still the enthu- 
siasm of scholarship is to be caught, not taught. Still 
that which draws and holds the student is the realiza- 
tion that something really important is now occurring 
in the teacher's mind. WhenFrancis Way land was here, 
the total endowment of Brown University amounted to 
^31,300 — plus Francis Wayland! Without large en- 
dowment to-day our education would be mere pretense 
C 44 ] 



The University Sermon 

— so vastly have the times and demands changed. But 
we have need on anniversary occasions to go back to 
the day of small things and great ideals, and draw fresh 
waters from the ancient fountains. 

The colonial college has also come into a new under- 
standing of the search for truth. What we now call 
research was unknown in the early days of the New 
England college, as it was then unknown at Oxford or 
Cambridge. Knowledge was conceived as a deposit to 
be handed down. The teacher wasto transmit, but hardly 
to increase, the sacred trust. As late as the middle of 
the nineteenth century the trustees of Columbia Univer- 
sity mentioned the fact that three professors were writ- 
ing books, as a possible cause of inefficiency. In colonial 
days the emphasis was all on communication, not on 
discovery. One teacher usually taught all the subjects 
to each class, the president being the sole instructor 
throughout the Senior year. The teacher followed the 
rule, not golden, of teaching others as others had taught 
him. 

But residence in Germany changed all that. As our 
young teachers came back from the German univer- 
sities, they came fired with a passion for truth such as 
animated the philosophers of ancient Greece. To push 
out the boundaries of knowledge at some one point 
on the circumference was their glowing desire, their 
demonstration of equipment for university position. 
Such devotion to research is one of the deepest and 
purest passions of the human spirit. It is the flame that 
must burn forever on the altars of the university. It 
means a search without hope of gain, without fear of 
consequence, without count of cost. It springs from the 
assumption — religious at the heart of it — that the uni- 
C 45 : 



Brown University 

verse is rational, is consistent, and that every one that 
asketh receiveth and to him that knocketh it shall be 
opened. Only he who has felt that passion for pure truth 
can describe it or communicate it to others. Those v^^ho 
are filled with that sacred fire may become to America 
what the Hebrew prophets were to ancient Israel, when 
"they searched what or what manner of time the spirit 
within them did signify," when they by spiritual intui- 
tion anticipated events and truths that later were flashed 
upon the consciousness of the nation. We of the Fac- 
ulty are not to teach as we have been taught. We are to 
teach what the world will believe fifty years from now. 
We are to see visions and dream dreams. We are to 
proclaim a deeper insight into reality, a fairer social 
order, a nobler organization of industry, a finer code of 
morals, than anything the world is yet ready to accept. 
And if the modern Jerusalem shall stone her prophets 
and kill them that are sent unto her, it will be true now 
as before, that the prophet's vision cannot die or his 
voice be utterly stilled. 

The colleges are also coming into a deeper and 
broader interpretation of the Christian faith. If we were 
shut up in the cabin of an ocean steamer with the found- 
ers of our colleges, we should find an exchange of ideas 
somewhat difficult. We should find those men speak- 
ing in another vocabulary, dwelling in a thought world 
largely shaped by John Milton and John Bunyan, inno- 
cent of all we now mean by scientific method. Have we 
then entered so new a world that we have no further 
connection with the generation in which these colleges 
were born.-^ To think so would be to show ourselves 
without the sense of either historic continuity or moral 
obligation. Separated from the founders we might be 
C 46 J 



The University Sermon 

by their quaint vocabulary, their limited world-view, 
their outgrown method. But we are forever united with 
them in purpose, and in intellectual and spiritual ideal. 
Their God is our God for ever and ever, their Christian 
evaluation of life is ours, their faith that the Kingdom 
of God is within you is and ever shall be our faith. 

The University in thus declaring its adherence to 
the Christian religion does not and cannot subscribe 
to any human creed. It cannot allow any ecclesiastical 
assembly to prescribe its studies or mould its policy. 
A university whose standing is annually determined by 
church authorities or by mass-meetings is an echo and 
not a leader. The true Christian college must be autono- 
mous, as were and are all the nine colleges founded 
before the Revolution. But just because it is autono- 
mous, it realizes its solemn responsibility for promot- 
ing the Christian ideal. It says to all Christian churches 
around it: " We sprang from your loins and we wish to 
render all filial honor and service. The phraseology of 
the class-room may differ from that of the pulpit. The 
methods of approach must differ. The human values you 
care for are dear to us. The cure of souls is our business 
also. The supremacy of righteousness, the sense of rev- 
erence for the unseen, the faith in the eternal issues of 
human life, — these things are our heritage also. We co- 
operate with you in guiding adolescent minds through 
perilous intellectual awakening into assurance of the 
truth. The old-time college was mainly for ministers; 
the modern college is for the ministering life." 

This Christian idealism humanizes all study and 

makes it vital. It prevents the search for truth from 

becoming mere grubbing after facts hitherto unknown 

because not worth knowing.lt prevents the intellectual 

1:47: 



Brown University 

isolation of scholars who have lost the forest in the 
trees. It prevents the sciences from becoming inhuman- 
ities, and saves literature from becoming material for 
dissection. It sheds over class-room and laboratory and 
play-ground "the light that never was on sea or land," 
and in that light the path of duty begins to shine. We 
see to-day the Christian ideal antagonized, if not sup- 
pressed, by whole sections of the modern world — by 
the perverted philosophy of force, by the arrogant mili- 
tarism of Europe, by theories that would base all na- 
tional greatness on dreadnaughts and battalions. Be it 
ours at a time when civilization itself is shaken by ad- 
herence to shallow philosophies and belated ideals, — 
be it ours to bow in new allegiance to the idealism of 
the fathers, which gave freedom and vigor to the colo- 
nial college and to American life. Be it ours to affirm 
again our faith in the spiritual meaning of the world. 
Then all the future of our colleges shall be a progres- 
sive entrance into the unfolding thought and purpose 
of God. 

After the singing of Gounod's anthem, " Send out Thy 
Light," by the Arion Chorus, prayer was offered by 
the Rev. Frank Warfield Crowder, D.D. : 

A LMIGHTY and everlasting God, whose blessed 
X\. Son was manifested that He might destroy the 
power of darkness, and make us the children of light, 
and who was the true Light that lighteth every man 
that Cometh into the world; lighten our darkness, we 
beseech Thee, with the full and abiding knowledge of 
Thy truth. Send Thy blessing upon all efforts to train 
the youth of our land in intelligence, virtue, and piety. 
Bless all schools and colleges of sound learning ; look 

L 48 ] 



The University Sermon 

with especial favor upon this University in these days 
of commemoration and rejoicing ; endue its Corporation 
and Faculty with a right sense of their high steward- 
ship, and with wisdom, faith, and zeal patterned after 
Him who was the Teacher come from God. Stir up the 
hearts of its friends and supporters to understand aright 
its responsibilities and aspirations, and lead them to a 
wise cooperation in its encouragement and endowment. 
Illuminate the minds, purify the hearts, and fashion the 
lives of its students, so that they may come forth a noble 
host, made ready and consecrated for large and abiding 
service and power. Send out Thy light that it may lead 
them. Bless everywhere those who are striving for a 
Christian education amidst the hindrances of poverty 
and friendlessness; and raise up friends and strengthen 
wise agencies, to cheer their noble endeavor. Pour out 
Thy Spirit from on high, and sanctify all minds and 
hearts for Thine acceptable service here and Thy 
blessed kingdom hereafter. All which we ask in the 
name of Him, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, 
Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

The hymn, " O God, our help in ages past," by Isaac 
Watts, was then sung by the congregation, and after 
prayer the Benediction was pronounced by the Rev. 
Dr. Crowder. An organ postlude — a selection from 
"Noel," by Saint-Saens— brought the service to a 
close. 



C 49 ] 



The Religious History 

of the University 

ON Monday, twelfth October, the Religious His- 
tory of the University was commemorated in 
addresses in Sayles Memorial Hall by representatives 
of the religious denominations mentioned in the col- 
lege charter. At half after ten o'clock in the forenoon 
President Faunce called the assemblage to order and 
presented the Rev. Clarence Augustine Barbour, D.D., 
of the class of 1888, as the Presiding Officer, who 
spoke as follows: 

Very significantly and fittingly this early session of 
our commemoration is given to the consideration of 
the relation of Brown University to the great themes 
of the Christian Ministry and of Missions. 

From the early days until the present this school of 
learning has been characterized by freedom from sec- 
tarian narrowness in charter provision and in actual 
practice. It has hkewise been marked by a liberal cul- 
ture which has furnished and inspired its graduates for 
manifold honorable and useful vocations. It has asked 
of the graduates that they think their own way through 
the problem of the choice of a life work, that they go 
each to serve with fidelity and devotion his day and 
generation according to the will of God. 

In the course of the years many have entered the 
Christian ministry, and the roll of this company of 
Brown men is one upon which we can look with joy 
and gratitude. Some have risen to high position in lead- 
ership and have won for themselves name and fame; 
some have served in places removed from the public 

C 50] 



Religious History of the University- 
eye and have lived in comparative obscurity. Of all the 
goodly company we can say with full hearts that their 
works do follow them if the life task is done, and that 
those who are bearing the burden and heat of this pres- 
ent day were never more greatly needed. 

The theme of the first address is "The University 
and the Christian Ministry," and I have the honor to 
present as the speaker the Rt. Rev. Frederick Bur- 
gess, D.D., of the class of 1873, Bishop of the Diocese 
of Long Island in the Protestant Episcopal Church. 

THE committee, who have honored me by inviting 
me to speak at this one hundred and fiftieth anni- 
versary, have given me a subject of grave and national 
importance, "The Relation of the University to the 
Christian Ministry. "I should wish to attach to both these 
terms the wide significance which I have no doubt the 
committee intended. 

Matthew Arnold says that Alcibiades declared that 
men went away from the oratory of Pericles saying that 
it was fine, it was very good, and afterwards thinking 
no more about it ; but that they went away from hear- 
ing Socrates talk with the point of what he said sticking 
fast in their minds, and they could not get rid of it. 
" Socrates," asks Arnold, " has drunk his hemlock and 
is dead, but in his own breast does not every man carry 
about with him a possible Socrates.''" 

As I speak to you to-day, on the problem of reli- 
gious education in our American colleges and univer- 
sities, and of the office of the Christian ministry, I can 
neither hope nor desire to rival the oratory of Pericles, 
but if there is a Socrates within me, I hope that he 
will aid me in aiming two arrows, one which shall stick 
C 51 ] 



Brown University 

fast in the mind, and the other which shall touch the 
heart. 

When we look back one hundred and fifty years and 
more, to the beginnings of intellectual life in Amer- 
ica, one fact stands out with a clearness which cannot 
be gainsaid. The origin of all our oldest colleges : Har- 
vard, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, 
Brown, was due to the energy, the devotion, and the 
liberality of clergymen. They founded them, they ad- 
ministered them, they taught in them. Looking back 
on those times, one can see that in the pre-Revolution- 
ary days, and indeed for decades after, the clergymen 
were the educators, the men who had the confidence and 
respect in every community, and to whom the young 
minds were entrusted. Whatever else we may say or 
think about the ministry as an order, we cannot refuse 
them this meed of praise. At a time when the country 
needed them, they were the men of the hour, and they 
built the house on a rock and not on sand, and the rain 
descended and the floods came and the winds blew, but 
their work has remained as a blessing to the nation. 

To-day we have to acknowledge that, in contrast, 
the clergy have vanished off" the educational field. It 
boots not that there are still chapel services, and that 
from time to time men who have made their reputa- 
tions in their metropolitan pulpits are asked to speak; 
yet the fact remains, as most of these men would ac- 
knowledge, that while they are treated with every 
courtesy, they are, nevertheless, regarded as outsiders, 
not looked upon as members of the college family; 
and there is, and can be, no lasting influence in the 
college from such transitory visits and occasional ser- 
mons. It is the men on the Faculty who have the op- 
C 52 J 



Religious History of the University 

portunity, and with the exception of Roman Catholic 
colleges and a few frankly sectarian institutions, the 
Christian minister is conspicuous on the Faculty only 
by his absence. 

Why is this contrast? It certainly is not because the 
clergy themselves have lost their interest in education; 
whatever happens, they must teach. In spite of all that 
is said, rehgion can be taught, and Christianity must 
be taught. St. Paul puts pastors and teachers on a par 
in the ministry, and the fondest, tenderest name, most 
often on the lips of the disciples of Jesus Christ, was 
" AiSao-fcaXo?," teacher. In their pulpits, in their Sunday- 
schools, in their ministering of the sacraments, in their 
pastoral care, the clergy are always teaching, and in 
almost the only department of education left in their 
control, the church secondary schools, there are clergy 
who, as teachers pure and simple, are worthy descend- 
ants of Muhlenberg and Dr. Coit. 

The explanation of this change in the attitude of the 
educational world towards the clergy would, in all its 
ramifications, take us far afield. Suffice it to say that, in 
its last analysis, it lies in the altered conception of the 
mission of the state. The state assumes no moral or re- 
ligious functions, according to American ideas ; it gives 
to every form of religion a right to exist, and physi- 
cal protection, but has itself no more responsibility. As 
a great writer has intimated, "The state is more like a 
commercial company or a huge municipality created for 
the management of certain business ; and that it should 
trouble itself about the opinions of its members, would 
be as unnatural as for a railway company to inquire 
how many of its shareholders were Methodists or total 
abstainers." 

[ 53 :\ 



Brown University 

This principle has been carried out into the public 
schools, and universities and colleges controlled by the 
state, and through them into all the larger and older 
institutions. To some of us, this solution of the religious 
educational problem does not seem a solution at all. 
It is a cutting, not an unraveling, of the Gordian knot. 
But just because of its apparent simplicity, it has ap- 
pealed to the American mind, and it is only within 
recent years that the suspicion has arisen in the minds 
of our people that by this ignoring of religion and eth- 
ics in our state educational system, we may be wast- 
ing our spiritual and moral capital as a nation, just as we 
have ruthlessly cut down our forests and recklessly 
pillaged our mines. This non-religious conception of the 
state would destroy all patriotism. The patriot would 
suffer and die for a nation which he could ideaUze as a 
person with lofty faith and hopes, but no one would die 
for a railroad corporation or an insurance company. 

So an Alma Mater who teaches neither religion nor 
morals will get little devotion or love from her alumni. 
Some rich magnate, for his own glorification, may un- 
load his millions on her, to make his name great, but 
we shall sing her no hymns, and remain cold when she 
is mentioned. 

From this corporation idea of the university, Brown 
has been saved by her charter. It is an unique document, 
and I like to believe that its spirit may, in part, have 
been due to the influence of Bishop Berkeley, who, dur- 
ing his long residence at Newport, planned a College 
of Rhode Island. That charter, however, does two 
things. It secures forever the religious liberty of the 
scholars at Brown and their freedom from religious 
tests. At a time when ecclesiastical oppression and tyr- 

L 54 3 



Religious History of the University 

anny were still rife, and when at Oxford, for instance, 
the great university of England, matriculation could 
be had only through enforced partaking of the Holy 
Communion, that is, through sacrilege on the part of 
many, the Brunonian document reads as follows: " Into 
this hberal and catholic Institution shall never be ad- 
mitted any religious tests, ... all the members hereof 
shall forever enjoy full free absolute and uninterrupted 
liberty of conscience." On the other hand, the charter 
safeguards and perpetuates the religious and Christian 
character of the college through the personality of the 
Trustees and Fellows. These are to be elected in fixed 
proportion from four Christian bodies: the Baptists, the 
FriendsorQuakers,theCongregationalists,andtheEpis- 
copalians. It is here that the spirit of the charter finds 
expression. These men when elected must be whole- 
hearted members of their respective Christian societies. 
The spirit of the charter is broken if half-hearted, 
lukewarm Christians are chosen, and the whole pur- 
pose of the college will be defeated if nominal members 
of a denomination, that is, men who are living in immor- 
ality and have no true faith, are placed in authority. 

If, however, the provisions of the charter are ob- 
served, it will follow of necessity that the office of the 
Christian ministry in the University will be recognized. 
It is no accident that the presidents of Brown have al- 
ways been taken from the Baptist ministry. What great 
men they have been ! American educational history has 
few more illustrious names than those of Manning, 
Wayland, Robinson, Andrews, and if I may be per- 
mitted to add, Faunce. They were men of liberal cul- 
ture, who knew how to preserve what the charter 
speaks of as the "catholic" character of the college. 
C 55 J 



Brown University 

But the Trustees, while thus obeying the highest 
dictates of the charter in the election of the presidents, 
have, on the other hand, yielded to the spirit of the 
age in the appointment of the Faculty. It is a significant 
fact, that of the hundred or more professors and tutors 
at Brown, with the exception of our honored President, 
no one is a Christian minister. Such a state of affairs 
would have been inconceivable to the men who wrote 
the charter. That philosophy and history and many an- 
other subject would be taught by the clergy was some- 
thing that would necessarily follow from the character 
of the electoral board of officers. It needed no pro- 
vision; what they did provide against was the intro- 
duction of what they called " sectarian differences of 
opinion" into the courses, although all religious con- 
troversies were to be studied freely. It is, therefore, 
with the charter on my side, that I make my point and 
plead for a larger recognition of the work of the Chris- 
tian ministry, and for the proportionate representation 
of the order on the teaching staff' of the college. 

If this were a debate, I know well the answer that 
would be made by the authorities. " You are quite mis- 
taken," they would say, "in supposing that there is any 
bias against the clergy in the educational world. We 
would gladly admit them to the order of teachers. But 
these are days of specialization, and we rarely, if ever, 
find ministers who are in any way fitted by their know- 
ledge of the science of modern pedagogics and by any 
special line of study." Let me say, then, that I am no 
reactionary. The modern university is the legitimate 
development of our modern age. Beautiful as we can 
picture that college in Warren to have been, one hun- 
dred and fifty years ago, with its twenty-three students. 



Religious History of the University 

eight of whom were studying for the ministry, and 
with its courses consisting only of Greek, Latin, and 
Mathematics, yet it would be powerless in its influence 
on the nation to-day. A wealthy citizen has, I under- 
stand, bought and restored Fort Ticonderoga, a very 
interesting antiquarian accomplishment. But as soon 
would you expect that picturesque fortress, with its 
moat and its ramparts, with its simple guns and cannon- 
balls, to withstand a modern army, as that college of 
one hundred and fifty years ago to meet the needs of the 
time and to overcome the enemy of ignorance to-day. 
That is all true. It is also true that there are some 
men in the ministry who have this special training, who 
are ready to teach, but who, unless they renounced 
their ministry, would not be welcome to the teaching 
force of any of our public institutions. And it is also 
true that many and many a young man in the ministry 
would gladly devote the years of preparation, if only he 
could feel that throughout the various branches of mod- 
ern teaching his acquirements would be recognized, 
and his services be somewhere received. The Univer- 
sity needs such service. The men of my time, I fancy, 
recall with gratitude those two great men, J. Lewis 
Diman and Ezekiel Robinson, both Christian ministers, 
and we cannot forget the way in which the one, in his 
history courses, brought out the influence of the Chris- 
tian church upon European civihzation, and the other 
showed that the truest philosophy is, in its heart, consis- 
tent with the deepest Christian faith. College life meant 
more to us because those two men were on the Faculty. 
I would not, for a moment, decry the work which is 
done by the laymen, in such organizations as the Bishop 
Seabury Society, the Brotherhood of St. Andrew, or the 
C 57 ] 



Brown University 

Young Men's Christian Association, but the college 
needs something more, something which the Christian 
ministry, and the Christian ministry alone, can impart. 

The restoration, then, of the clergy to their original 
influence in our universities in America would be an 
act of highest usefulness to the state. And if Brown 
leads the way, it will be fulfilling the dictates of its 
charter, not with the letter which killeth, but with the 
spirit which giveth life. Brown University was founded 
when the British colonies were on the eve of revolu- 
tion, and it was with the purpose of training the youths 
as loyal citizens of the state that these men, with dif- 
fering religious views, but with one common Chris- 
tianity, gathered themselves together and framed the 
new college, because they believed it would be, to use 
their own language, " for the general advantage and 
honor of the Government." 

So while we are here celebrating this one hundred 
and fiftieth anniversary, the country stands at the open- 
ing of a new era. It is no exaggeration to say that 
the European War, no matter who triumphs, has in 
it a crisis for America, almost as great as for any of 
the nations involved. Forever gone are the days when 
Washington in his Farewell Address could warn his 
country against entangling alliances. Forever gone, too, 
are these later and recent days when our educated men 
could stay away, with aristocratic disdain, from the polls, 
or treat with good humored shrugs each new tale of 
municipal or state corruption. Forever gone, also, are 
the days when the success of enormous wealth could be 
the ideal of our young men, or when the exigencies of 
business could be a legitimate excuse from the duty 
of civic responsibility and military service. 
C 58 ] 



Religious History of the University 

We talk about the new freedom and the new de- 
mocracy, but what we need most is a new patriotism. 
Our citizens must prate less about liberty and rights, 
and speak in graver tones and with clearer emphasis 
of their national duties. The United States of America 
must take her place among the nations of the world 
as never before. The Atlantic on the one side, and the 
Pacific on the other, are no longer barriers to either 
intercourse or attack, and the nation can meet its re- 
sponsibilities only when it has citizens worthy of its 
greatness and ready to exalt its name. The object of 
the university is, first and foremost, to breed such citi- 
zens, men who can act as architects of the future, and 
who, by their nobility of character, can be "for the 
advantage and honor of the Government." 

Is the Christian ministry to have its part in this ser- 
vice .f* This is the question that confronts the American 
university to-day. If that question is answered in the 
negative, not only is injustice done to a highly educated 
and influential class in the community, but the univer- 
sity itself is deprived of the assistance of men who, by 
their enthusiasm and faith, are well equipped for the 
task. 

The dread of controversy is unnecessary. " Better," 
says Shakespeare, in one of those sentences which 
light up the philosophy of the home, — "Better a little 
chiding than a great deal of heart-break." So I would 
say, better a little controversy than a great deal of 
indifference. It is the neglect of Christianity, not the 
thought or even contention about Christianity, that 
does the most harm. We are not afraid of controversy 
in any of the other branches of study, in science, or 
philosophy, or history, or even politics, surely we need 

: 59 ] 



Brown University 

not fear it in religion. At least so thought those men 
of 1764 when they penned the charter, for they said, 
"All religious controversies may be studied freely." 
Perhaps they knew that the cause of education, even 
more than the cause of missions, would bring Christians 
nearer together, and turn controversy into a sincere 
and generous inquiry for the truth. 

To sum it all up in one final sentence : The relation 
of the university to the Christian ministry must be that 
of confidence in the men whose official ancestors were 
the college founders ; who care a great deal about the 
soundness of the mind and of the body, but who care 
far more about the Spirit of God in the heart ; who will, 
if they are permitted, lead the way to heights of view 
not attainable through merely intellectual training ; and 
without whose assistance the American university can 
never fulfil its highest mission of producing sons with 
the vision of God in their hearts. 

The Presiding Officer then said: 

The world has become a neighborhood. No longer is 
it possible for a nation to live in isolation. Bonds, visi- 
ble and invisible, equally real, unite us to peoples far 
beyond our coasts. Horizons widen with the passing 
years. The interchange of peoples makes ours a com- 
posite and cosmopolitan nation and carries our life and 
language into every continent. 

The enterprise of Christian Missions needs no de- 
fense at our hands. Its right to be and its beneficent 
achievement are no longer in wide debate. 

There are those who saw this day from afar, and who 
hearkened to the call for service which it contained for 

[60 J 



Religious History of the University 

them. The number of men whom Brown has sent into 
this great and fertile field of endeavor is not imposing, 
but the University has not been unmindful of the obliga- 
tion to the ends of the earth. The contribution of Brown 
to this world-wide enterprise includes the names of not 
a few who are ranked among the missionary states- 
men of the century past. At the head stands the pioneer 
of them all, Adoniram Judson, nom^n mirabile. Francis 
Wayland himself gave mighty impulse to the cause by 
his powerful personality and weighty message. 

The theme of the next address is "The University 
and Christian Missions," and the speaker is one whom 
I present with peculiar pleasure , the Rev. George Edwin 
Horr, D.D., LL.D., of the class of 1876, President of 
the Newton Theological Institution. 

BROWN University is the child of the colonial 
Baptist Churches. The Philadelphia Association, 
from which proceeded the influences that did so much 
to evangelize the South, soon became interested in the 
work of education. In 1756 the Association founded at 
Hopewell, New Jersey, an academy " for the education 
of youth for the ministry." The success of this acad- 
emy inspired the friends of learning with confidence to 
attempt larger things. 

" Many of the churches," says a contemporary, 
"being supplied with able pastors from Mr. Eaton's 
academy, and being thus convinced, from experience, 
of the great usefulness of human literature to more 
thoroughly furnish the man of God for the most im- 
portant work of the Gospel ministry, the hands of the 
Philadelphia Association were strengthened, and their 
hearts were encouraged to extend their designs of 
[61 ] 



Brown University 

promoting literature in the Society [^denomination^ by 
erecting, on some suitable part of this continent, a col- 
lege, or university, which should be principally under 
the direction and government of the Baptists." 

It is a familiar story that from this seed grew the 
present college whose one hundred and fiftieth birth- 
day we are now celebrating. 

The impulse that brought most of our early colleges 
to birth was primarily religious. The spirit of the found- 
ers of Harvard is beautifully expressed in the words of 
a contemporary letter which are carved on the college 
gates : 

"After God had carried us safe to New England, 
and we had builded our houses, provided necessaries 
for our livelihood, rear'd convenient places for God's 
worship, and settled the Civill Government; One of the 
next things we longed for and looked after was to ad- 
vance Learning, and perpetuate it to Posterity, dreading 
to leave an illiterate Ministry to the churches, when 
our present Ministers shall lie in the dust." 

The devotion and the vision that founded Harvard 
in 1638 founded Brown one hundred and twenty-six 
years later, in 1764. The clear intention, however, of 
the founders of the five denominational colleges that 
antedate Brown University was to raise up an edu- 
cated ministry. Most of them, in addition to the disci- 
pline of the arts courses, gave distinctively theological 
instruction. At Yale, Harvard, and Princeton this fea- 
ture of the college work was so strongly emphasized 
that ultimately each college became identified with a 
peculiar type of theology. In a real sense, the theolo- 
gical work at Yale and Harvard was the nucleus of the 
college course, and though at Princeton the theologi- 



Religious History of the University 

cal school was organically separate from the college, 
the school and the college were intimately associated. 
These colleges, and those like them, exerted a strong 
direct influence upon the training of ministers and mis- 
sionaries. 

At Brown University this influence was indirect, and 
that for two reasons. The charter explicitly provided 
that "the sectarian differences of opinions shall not 
make any part of the public and classical instruction." 
This effectually shut out instruction such as was com- 
mon at the time at Harvard and Yale, and prevented 
the establishment of chairs that might undertake, even 
in part, the distinctive work of a theological seminary. 
The founders appear to have taken elaborate pains 
that Brown should not have a Baptist divinity school as 
both Yale and Harvard were coming to have Congre- 
gational divinity schools. 

Another provision of the charter worked in the same 
direction. The self-perpetuating governing boards of 
other colleges naturally took good care that only their 
co-religionists should be elected to vacancies. Thus it 
came about that, without charter provisions, these boards 
were composed exclusively of representatives of the 
denomination that founded the college. In these cir- 
cumstances there was not the slightest difficulty in 
coloring the instruction, and in making the college in- 
fluence felt directly in the denominational life. A very 
different state of things prevailed at Brown. The char- 
ter divided the government of the college among repre- 
sentatives of the Baptists, the Friends, the Congrega- 
tionalists,and the Episcopalians. Under these conditions 
the establishment of a Baptist divinity school at Brown, 
to match the Congregational divinity schools at Yale 
C 63 J 



Brown University 

and at Harvard, was plainly impossible. By the terms of 
the organizing principle of Brown, the college was kept 
out of the field of distinctively religious instruction. 

It is one of the paradoxes of the evolution of institu- 
tions that colleges which remain firmly attached to cer- 
tain denominations through prescription and the self- 
perpetuating power of their governing boards, should 
be characterized as unsectarian, while a college that 
makes specific provision for the inclusion of the repre- 
sentatives of four religious bodies should sometimes 
have been characterized as narrowly denominational. 

If, therefore, the influence of Brown University upon 
the great work of missions is not so palpable and direct 
as we might have anticipated, we can see a reason for 
it, and a reason that colors the whole religious history 
of the college. Brown University was not an arm of the 
Baptist denomination; it was the gift of the denomina- 
tion to the cause of education and not to itself. 

Another factor should enter into the consideration of 
this matter. The modern missionary movement, espe- 
cially among the English Evangelical party in the 
Church of England and English Congregationalists, 
in considering the missionary's equipment, placed the 
primary emphasis upon the candidate's natural parts, 
his zeal and piety. The early appointees of the Lon- 
don Missionary Society were almost wholly uneducated 
artisans. It cannot fairly be said that American Bap- 
tists generally approved this policy, but large numbers 
of them took an intermediate position. They felt that 
Brown University stood for a more distinctively secu- 
lar type of education than was desirable. As a matter 
of fact, the missionaries of the American Baptist Mis- 
sionary Union for the most part did not enjoy a thor- 
C 64 2 



Religious History of the University 

ough education until the Newton Theological Institu- 
tion was established in 1825, which, in connection with 
Brown, became, as Professor Brastow, of Yale, notes 
in his work, " The Modern Pulpit," the principal factor 
in raising the educational standard of the American 
Baptist ministry. 

But even after this cooperation had become efficient, 
there was an important section of the Baptists, repre- 
sented by the founders of Columbian University, who 
believed that a different form of education than the 
classical and mathematical was most useful for min- 
isters and missionaries. We can now see that there was 
a measure of truth in their contention, and Brown has 
been prominent in recognizing it, and that in the most 
cogent way, by broadening her curriculum to adapt her 
privileges to many different needs. 

I have dwelt on these factors at some length in order 
that we may have before our minds more clearly the 
reasons that prevented the influence of Brown upon 
missions from being more direct. 

But the indirect influence of the college was most 
important. It did not teach Baptist doctrines; it did not 
teach any form of denominational religion ; it is only 
fair to say that at some periods it did not fulfil its privi- 
lege as a religious force, but it stood throughout the 
years for scholarship, for clear ideas and exact expres- 
sion, and when men of parts, who had profited by this 
training, became ministers and missionaries, they be- 
came at once by the specific gravity of souls, men of 
weight and leadership. 

We have a salient illustration of this influence of the 
college in its incomparable gift to the cause of foreign 
missions in the life of Adoniram Judson, of the class of 
[ 65 ] 



Brown University 

1 807. When Judson graduated from college, he did not 
call himself a Christian. He had been caught in that 
wave of skepticism that swept over the country in his col- 
lege days, and was finally stayed by the teaching and in- 
fluence of President Dwight, of Yale. Even when Jud- 
son entered Andover Theological Seminary, in 1 808, he 
was neither a professor of religion nor a candidate for 
the ministry. He was admitted to the seminary only by 
special favor. But on the second of December, 1808, 
he made a solemn dedication of himself to God, and on 
the twenty-eighth of May, 1809, at the age of twenty- 
one, he joined the Third Congregational Church in 
Plymouth. His conversion involved in itself a conse- 
cration to the Christian ministry. 

The "round peg in the square hole "theory contains 
only a fraction of truth, and Dr. Johnson's definition 
of genius as "great powers accidentally determined" 
is equally open to criticism ; but, in general, a man 
who attains eminence in any one department of human 
activity would have been equally successful in sev- 
eral others. Adoniram Judson was a man who would 
have been great in any calling which had enlisted his 
powers. He had the qualities that command success as 
a merchant, a statesman, or a general. In any of the 
professions he would have won great distinction. And 
his devotion, persistence, and good sense mark him as 
one of the rarest of men. 

The achievements of Judson in the realms of pure 
scholarship are of the first order. His translation of the 
Holy Scriptures into Burmese, and his Burmese gram- 
mar and lexicon, have received universal recognition. 
His translation of the Bible ranks with the best made 
into any language. His mastery of the Greek he learned 
C 66 J 



Religious History of the University 

in this college, and of the Hebrew he acquired at An- 
dover, is evident on every page. Luther is said to have 
exclaimed many times in the course of his translation 
of the Old Testament: "How hard it is to make the 
prophets talk German ! " But Luther had many help- 
ers. Judson worked almost alone. There is no paral- 
lel to Judson's achievement until we go back to John 
Wyclif. Judson made the prophets talk Burmese. The 
training that made these great powers effective he 
gained in this college, and this college in this year 
which commemorates the one hundredth anniversary 
of his work in Burma does well to honor with signal 
tributes her illustrious son. 

During the last few months a great Christian com- 
munity in Burma has been celebrating the centenary 
of the day when America gave Burma the Gospel. In 
the heart of Buddhism there has been built up a strong 
and self-supporting group of Christian churches. At our 
celebration this week we rejoice to trace the influence 
of this college in many lines of activity and through- 
out broad spaces, but I hazard nothing in saying that, 
without disparaging the work of others, but giving them 
the amplest recognition, no graduate of this college has 
brought to it a finer lustre of splendid achievement than 
Judson, of the class of 1807. And speaking as chair- 
man of the Committee on the Burmese Centenary, nom- 
inated by the churches of Burma and elected by the 
American Baptist Foreign Mission Society, I beg you to 
receive this day from my lips the greeting of one thou- 
sand churches and seventy thousand Burmese Chris- 
tians, and the testimony of their lively appreciation 
of the incomparable gift of this college to that far-off 
land. 

[ 67 ] 



Brown University 

We should always associate with the name of Jud- 
son that of a man who did not go to the foreign mis- 
sion field, but who, remaining at home, did more than 
any other pastor to propagate among our churches the 
spirit of missionary interest, devotion, and sacrifice. I 
refer, of course, to Lucius Bolles, of the class of 1801, 
Trustee and Fellow of Brown University, and for 
twenty-one years pastor of the First Baptist Church of 
Salem, Massachusetts. In 1812 he founded the "Salem 
Bible Translation and Missionary Society," the first 
definite organization in a local church for foreign mis- 
sions in all the world. As corresponding secretary of the 
American Baptist General Convention and Missionary 
Union, which was organized in 1814, Dr. Bolles for six- 
teen years from 1826 was the centre of the missionary 
administration of the American churches. Though this 
was a period of great enthusiasm, it was also a period in 
which divergent policies came to the front, and delicate 
and far-reaching questions arose for answer. Nothing 
could have been more fortunate than that the work 
which Judson was doing abroad should have been ad- 
ministered at home by a man so sagacious and well 
balanced and so thoroughly sympathetic with Judson 's 
ideals as Bolles. 

In the Triennial Convention, as the first organiza- 
tion of Baptists for foreign missionary work was called, 
there were twenty-six ministers and seven laymen. 
Three of these ministers, namely, Lucius Bolles, Bur- 
gess Allison, and William Rogers, were graduates of 
Brown. Rogers was a member of the first graduating 
class at Rhode Island College. Rutgers, Princeton, Wil- 
liams, and Yale were each represented by one graduate. 
And among the Brown graduates who have served as 

c 68 :\ 



Religious History of the University 

presidents or secretaries of the foreign board are How- 
ard Malcom, Barnas Sears, Isaac Davis, Horatio Gates 
Jones, William T. Brantly, Solomon Peck, Jonah G. 
Warren, John N. Murdock, Sylvanus D. Phelps, Eze- 
kiel G. Robinson, William W. Keen, Stephen Greene, 
Henry Kirke Porter, Edward Judson, Samuel W. Dun- 
can, and Thomas S. Barbour. These men were not orna- 
mental officials; they threw themselves into the great 
enterprise. While the man whose common sense, gen- 
uine piety, and large outlook won the confidence of all 
the churches was the great president of Brown, Francis 
Wayland. 

But Judson was by no means alone as a representa- 
tive of this college in the arduous and sometimes peril- 
ous work on the foreign field. Two theories as to for- 
eign missions have divided all missionary boards, — 
the evangelistic and the educational. Few intelligent 
persons who have studied the evolution of modern mis- 
sions hold that the two views are mutually exclusive ; 
they see clearly that they are supplementary ; that each 
sort of work strengthens the other. Still, the constantly 
recurring question in missionary administration is what 
type of effort should receive the stronger emphasis. 
On the whole, the Baptist churches of the United States . 
have been inclined to regard direct evangelism as the 
missionary's principal task, but it is natural that col- 
lege men should seek to redress the balance of an over- 
emphasis in this direction and encourage the educa- 
tional aspects of missions. 

As a matter of fact. Brown University made its dis- 
tinctive contribution to missions in educational direc- 
tions. Of the first seven Brown graduates to become 
foreign missionaries, five became eminent as transla- 
C 69 ] 



Brown University 

tors. Edward Abiel Stevens, '33, Newton, '36, collabo- 
rated with Judson and completed his work on the Bur- 
mese translation and the lexicon, and revised the whole. 
He also made the Siamese and the Peguan versions. 
Lyman Jewett, '43, Newton, '46, translated the Scrip- 
tures intoTelegu. Josiah Ripley Goddard,'62, Newton, 
'67, made the translation into the Ningpo colloquial of 
China; and John Taylor Jones, '23, made a Siamese 
version. 

Among our leaders in school work we mention 
William Ashmore, '70, President of Ashmore Theo- 
logical Seminary, Swatow, China; Albert Arnold Ben- 
nett, '72, President of the Theological Seminary at 
Yokohama; Josiah Nelson Cushing, '62, President of 
the Rangoon Baptist College and original translator of 
the Scriptures into Shan; David Downie, '69, organizer 
and leader of educational work at Nellore, India ; Rob- 
ert Henry Ferguson, '84, physician and teacher; Wil- 
bur Brown Parshley,'86,Presidentof the Japan Baptist 
Theological Seminary, Yokohama; Jared Harvey Ran- 
dall, '97, Professor in the Rangoon Baptist College; 
Willis Frye Thomas, '77, Professor in the American 
Baptist Theological Seminary, Insein, Burma, trans- 
lator and revisor of the Burmese and Karen versions ; 
Joseph Taylor, '98, Principal of the Union Interdenomi- 
national College at Shengtu,West China; the Stevenses 
— father and son — Edward Abiel, '33, and Edward 
Oliver, '61 , who have left such a deep impress upon 
the educational work at Rangoon and Insein ; Sumner 
Red way Vinton, '96, who succeeded his grandfather, 
Justus H., and his father, Justus B., in the Rangoon 
Mission, of which this family are regarded as the pa- 
tron saints; Joseph Chandler Robbins, '97, who after 

C 70 2 



Religious History of the University 

a useful service in the Philippines has become college 
secretary of the Student Volunteer Movement. 

It is noteworthy how sons and grandsons of Brown 
graduates have perpetuated on single fields the influ- 
ence of this college. Recall Benjamin C. Thomas, '46, 
at Burma, and his son, Willis Frye, '77, at Insein; 
Edward A. Stevens, his son, Edward O. , and his grand- 
son, Sumner R., at Rangoon, and the Vintons among 
the Karens. 

Brown University has contributed to foreign mis- 
sions, besides those I have already mentioned: Josiah 
Goddard,'35 ; Horace Thomas Love, '36; Durlin Lee 
Brayton, '37; William Crowell, '38; Albert Nicholas 
Arnold, '38; Erasmus Norcross Jencks, '46; Charles 
Hibbard, '50; Alfred Brown Satterlee, '52 ; Edward 
Winter Clark, '57; Isaac Davis Colburn, '59; Edwin 
Bullard, '67 ; Sabin Tillotson Goodell, '68 ; James Hope 
Arthur, '70 ; Charles Harvey Finch, '77 ; Truman John- 
son, '79 ; Sidney White Rivenburg, '80 ; Charles Ed- 
win Burdette, '80; Samuel Willis Hamblin,'86; Charles 
Grant Hartsock, '89; Charles Fisk MacKenzie, '90 ; 
Jesse Fowler Smith, '96; John Howard Deming, '97; 
Stacy Reuben Warburton, '98 ; Walter Boardman Bul- 
len, '99; Andrew Little Eraser, '02 ; Joseph Francis 
Russell, '02 ; Harry Clifford Leach, '02 ; Percival Rogers 
Bakeman,'o3; Robert Bell Longwell, '03 ; Merrick 
Lyon Streeter, '07 ; John Addison Foote, '09 ; Brayton 
Clarke Case, '10; George Glass Davitt, '11 ; Herbert 
Collins Long, 'i 2; Daniel Harrison Kulp,'i3. 

As I have suggested, the list of Brown graduates who 
have engaged in this work is not large. Six thousand 
nine hundred and eleven men have graduated from 
Brown during the one hundred and fifty years of its 

L 71 : 



Brown University 

existence. The records of the Baptist Foreign Mission 
Society show that fifty-two have worked under its care, 
and it is probably safe to say that not more than twenty 
are recorded as working under other boards, but the 
influence of these men upon the world has been out of 
all proportion to their numbers. They have moulded 
not only groups but whole civilizations. It was given to 
men like Judson in Burma, Jewett and Day in South 
India, and Arthur in Japan to be among the very first on 
these fields, and to set the type of all subsequent effort; 
and Brown men have been among the foremost in dis- 
seminating truly liberal ideas in missionary work. 

And what shall we say of the men whom Brown has 
educated who have thrown their influence in favor of 
every eflt)rt to bring the world to Christ.^ To mention 
a single name, who shall set bounds to the influence of 
Edwards Amasa Park, of the class of 1826, the eminent 
professor at Andover, which sent out such a splendid 
company of missionaries, or of the group of professors 
at Newton, most of them graduates of Brown ? Newton 
itself has sent one hundred and twenty-four mission- 
aries to the foreign field. Verily the lines of Brown have 
gone out into all the earth and her words to the end 
of the world. 

At half after twelve o'clock noon, the first organ re- 
cital was given in Sayles Hall by the University organ- 
ist, Gene Wilder Ware, with the following programme: 
" Praeludium Festivum in G minor," by Becker ; " An- 
dante Cantabile in B flat," by Tschai'kowsky ; " Sous les 
Bois," by Durand ; " Sunrise," by Demarest; "Chant 
Negre," by Kramer; "Scherzo Symphonique," by 
Faulke. 

C 72 J 



Religious History of the University 

Similar recitals were given by Mr. Ware at the same 
hour on the three remaining days of the festival. 

At half after two o'clock in the afternoon the Religious 
History of the University was further commemorated. 
The Presiding Officer was the Rev. Thomas D. An- 
derson, D.D., of the class of 1874, who spoke as fol- 
lows: 

The fact that this session with its special topic is inserted 
in the programme of our one hundred and fiftieth anni- 
versary is evidence that Brown University beheves that 
man is a religious being, and comes to his fullest reali- 
zation only after a process of religious education. The 
history of civilization bears testimony to the presence 
and powerof religion. The history of religion proves the 
need and value of education. In its early stages religion 
is obscured and vitiated byignorance, superstition, glut- 
tony, lust, and cruelty. We see it toying with magic, and 
deem it unworthy of the devotion of reasonable men. 
But natural science, too, in its childhood, found delight 
in the pranks of magic. Yet natural science through ob- 
servation, investigation, and multiplied experiments, in 
a word, through a process of education, has become 
an important factor in the progress of civilization. So 
religion by a similar process has become a most potent 
factor in individual and social welfare. 

We admit and emphasize the truth that religion is 
primarily experience, but the religious man needs edu- 
cation in order to interpret truly the phenomena of his 
experience. Religion recognizes a superior being and is 
conscious of an impulse to come into harmony with such 
a being. But it is not enough for the religious man to 
have a God. The challenge comes as it came to Moses 

c 73 : 



Brown University 

from the Israelites. What is his name? What kind of 
a God is he? What is his character? What makes him 
worthy of my homage and obedient service? It is by a 
process of education — a process of observation, investi- 
gation, inference, and, above all, experiment (including 
what religion calls experience ) — that we gain know- 
ledge of a God worthy of our highest reverence and 
noblest service. And it is by such a process, too, that we 
discover the method by which we may come into har- 
monious relation with Him, and thus adjust ourselves 
to eternal reality. 

The teacher of religion cannot create life any more 
than the teacher of medicine, but, after the manner of 
the teacher of medicine, he may discover the laws of 
life, and the conditions of its fertility and effectiveness, 
and point the way to life more abundant. Religious ex- 
perience quickens life by the inspiration of a generous 
motive. Religious education helps that life to greater 
effectiveness by the discovery of a proper method. 

There is a zeal for God, not according to knowledge; 
but a zeal for a worthy God, regulated and guided by 
adequate knowledge, is the most potent factor in the 
realization of the individual, and in the transformation 
and consummation of human society. 

But I am not here to make an address. It is not mine, 
this afternoon, to enlighten this audience. I simply press 
the button, the electrifying light will flash from other 
minds and hearts than mine. 

The first address, on "Baptists and Education," by 
President Edgar Young Mullins, D.D., of the South- 
ern Baptist Theological Seminary, who unfortunately is 
absent on account of illness, will be read by the Rev. 
Henry Melville King, D.D. 

C 74 3 



Religious History of the University 

IT is related that upon the occasion of his marriage in 
Westminster Abbey, Henry M. Stanley, as he pro- 
ceeded to the altar, laid a wreath of white roses on the 
tomb of David Livingstone in recognition of his indebt- 
edness to his great predecessor in African explora- 
tion. In behalf of every southern Baptist, and indeed of 
every American Baptist and every Baptist of the world, 
I would on this one hundred and fiftieth anniversary 
not only bring congratulation, but also lay a wreath 
of good-will, of love, of admiration and loyalty, not 
indeed upon the tomb, but upon the radiant brow of 
Brown University, the mother of us all in the realm of 
higher education. 

The subject assigned me requires that I speak of 
Baptists and Education. I cannot give even in outline 
a history of Baptist education within the limits pre- 
scribed for this address. That history has indeed many 
interesting and thriUing phases. It is the history, in its 
earlier period, of a scattered people seeking unity and 
efficiency ; the history of an intensely democratic people 
seeking for qualified leaders; of a deeply religious 
and spiritual people seeking to provide its pulpits with 
men who should be worthy exponents of the common 
life and of its great ideals. It is the history of a people 
with a sense of mission, seeking, through education, 
an instrument adequate to the fulfilment of that mis- 
sion. If there were time to trace it, that history would 
appear further, in its beginnings, as a period of small 
endowments and great ideals, of meagre apparatus 
and material equipment and great visions. To be frank, 
it would also appear as the history of a people who at 
times have established far too many schools. To bor- 
row a figure from medical science. Baptist colleges 

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and academies have been at certain epochs and places, 
endemic, sporadic, and epidemic. There have been 
many mistakes and many failures, but there has been 
remarkable progress. Even Brown University was 
more than fifty years old before its endowment ex- 
ceeded twenty-five thousand dollars. Yet to-day Baptist 
educational institutions in the United States alone, not 
to speak of England or Canada and the Continent of 
Europe, or of our school systems in many mission fields, 
numbertwelve theological seminaries, one hundred uni- 
versities and colleges, and ninety-five academies, which 
have an endowment of between forty and fifty million 
dollars and about the same amount in real estate and 
buildings. Since there is not opportunity for an historical 
treatment of the subject, I shall attempt briefly to ex- 
pound the Baptist ideal of education as arising from the 
distinctive spiritual life of our people. Perhaps no need is 
greater among us than that our educational ideal shall 
become articulate and clear. To this end, it is important 
to define it in relation to human progress in general 
and to those universal principles that lie at the heart of 
modern civilization. 

If we wish to emphasize its progress from lower to 
higher forms, we may liken civilization to the row of 
knives I once saw in a museum, illustrating the evolu- 
tion of the jackknife. It began with a rude knife of stone 
and ended with a highly finished modern jackknife. 
If we wish to emphasize human freedom in the on- 
going of history, we may perhaps liken it to a compli- 
cated game of chess, where the successive generations 
are the players. But if we would emphasize history as 
a life process unfolding from within, we must seek the 
great universal human yearnings toward perfection, 



Religious History of the University 

the vital and spiritual principles which forever impel 
men toward the higher life and attainment. In these 
do we hear the voice of God calling men to the divine 
life. 

Education, then, as Baptists conceive it, is a blos- 
som on the stalk of religion. There are two aspects of 
the Baptist conception of religion which supply us with 
a key to the true rationale of their view of education. 
One of these I may fitly describe as the severity and 
the other as the glory of the Baptist conception of reli- 
gion. By severity I mean the reduction of rehgion to its 
ultimate elements, the rejection of those things which 
have served as props but do not belong to the essence 
of the religious life; things on which men instinctively 
lean, but which it is better for them to learn to do with- 
out. I note a few of them. Men have always been fond 
of priestly mediators between the soul and God : Bap- 
tists have wholly rejected this ideal in the interest of 
the view that all are priests. Men naturally incline to 
sacramental grace: Baptists conceive the two rites of 
Christianity in the simplest manner as symbols only. 
Men easily cling to written creeds : Baptists have always 
rejected them as having no binding power whatsoever. 
It is a natural instinct of man to lean on outward ec- 
clesiastical authorities: Baptists have ever insisted upon 
individual responsibility, and upon democracy in the life 
of the Church. 

Now, it requires little reflection to correlate this 
severity and simplicity of the religious ideal with the 
necessity for education. It is clear that if there is to be 
no human mediator, then there must be a very intel- 
ligent and competent worshipper. If grace does not 
come through physical channels, it is clear that the 
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mental and spiritual powers must be highly trained. 
If, for example, the " real presence " is not a fact in the 
realm of matter, it must become a fact in the realm 
of mind. If, again, we are to be a creedless people, we 
must not become a people drifting without rudder and 
without ballast. To be without binding creeds must 
not mean an inarticulate and incompetent intellectual 
life. It must mean rather capacity for conviction, and 
steadfastness without the necessity for leading-strings. 
Surely, if we are to reject outward authority, we must 
require the highest degree of intellectual and spiritual 
competency in the individual and in the church. This is, 
very briefly and partially, what I mean by the severity 
of the Baptist conception of religion. Men have found 
fault with this severity. They have said : " You burn all 
the bridges behind the soul ; you try to build a temple 
without scaffolding; you try to make the soul fly with- 
out wings; you leave it floundering in the mire." But 
the reply is found in the other side of this truth. 

We glance now at the glory of that conception which 
equally demands education as the necessary instrument 
for its expression. I mention three elements as constitut- 
ing essentially the glory of the Baptist ideal of religion. 

First, the intrinsic worth of man as man. It has been 
said that God's purpose in creation did not appear until 
the dust stood erect in the form of a man. Nature is a 
cluster ring; man is the chief jewel in the centre. Na- 
ture is a long stick; man is the live coal on the end 
of it. Nature bursts into flame in man, who sums up 
all the preceding stages in himself. Man was the goal 
of the earher stages because he was the first point where 
the creation could reflect back the true image of God, 
as a dewdrop reflects the glory of the morning sun. 
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Second, the direct relation of the soul to God. This 
is the germinal principle of individualism, of democracy, 
and of a just social order. Individualism is one-sided 
and fragmentary so long as it is isolated. God's image 
in any man is the guarantee of the presence of God's 
image in every man. There is no sanction in ethics 
that does justice to the dignity of man's nature which 
does not see that moral and social obligation arises from 
man's nearness to God, his likeness to the Eternal. 
God's image in all men creates social obligation. 

This leads to the third element in the glory of the 
Baptist ideal of religion, namely, its view of man's capa- 
city for God and truth. It assumes the competency of the 
soul in religion. Here we have at once the mother prin- 
ciple of all true education: man's capacity for God and 
truth and the corresponding need for all realms of truth 
to enable him to realize himself. Art is man's response 
to beauty in the universe about him. Science is his re- 
sponse to the reign of law in physical nature. Philoso- 
phy is his response to the appeal of ultimate truth. 
Government is his response to social law, morality is 
his response to righteousness, and religion is his re- 
sponse to God. Some one has remarked upon the cost 
of a daisy. It requires the mighty power of gravitation, 
which holds together suns and systems, to shape the 
daisy. It requires the great ocean to supply needed 
moisture. The sunlight travels nearly a hundred mil- 
lion miles to paint its petals. It requires the cosmos to 
bring it to maturity. Professor Newcombe has said that 
we can get a worthy conception of the starry heavens 
only by lying on our backs on a bench or on a roof on 
a clear night in autumn and gazing steadfastly above 
us. What I am urging is that man's capacity for God, 



Brown University 

the necessity for direct relations with Him, implies the 
necessity for all education, all learning. The interac- 
tion of God and man and of God's universe and man 
— these are the only processes that can evoke the 
hidden resources of the human soul. 

Now the vital connection between these ideals and 
modern educational theory is easy to see. True educa- 
tion is not recapitulation. The Chinaman who, in Lamb's 
essay, discovered roast pig, accidentally burned his 
house down with the pig inside. Ever after, when a 
Chinaman wanted roast pig, he drove the pig in and 
burned down the house. Chinese education was reca- 
pitulation. 

Education is not merely mental discipline, although 
this is an important element. True education is pro- 
gressive adjustment of man to the universe and to God. 
It is the unfolding of all man's powers in response to all 
the manifold wealth of truth and life in the universe 
around him. 

These principles help us to understand our failures 
and our successes. They show us how to guide our fu- 
ture course. We have been right in insisting upon the 
free and intelligent response of the child to the religious 
appeal, and in making ecclesiastical rites wait upon such 
response. We have been wrong in failing to provide 
adequate educational equipment for the proper unfold- 
ing of the nature of the child. We have been right in 
insisting upon the direct action of God's Spirit in con- 
version, but wrong in so far as we have not provided 
instruction adequate for a strong foundation and a sta- 
ple superstructure in intelligence. We have been right 
in exploiting the idea of truth as the primary agent in 
character building, and often pitiably deficient in Sun- 
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Religious History of the University- 
day-school equipment for imparting truth. We have 
been right in admitting the uneducated to the minis- 
try, since we dare not silence the direct witness of the 
Spirit through the individual. We have been wrong in 
so far as we have permitted the uneducated to remain 
uneducated, limiting his usefulness and allowing him 
to be a menace to our prosperity. We have been right in 
the impulse to multiply schools, since the impulse is the 
product of unfolding life within. We have been wrong 
in failing sometimes to restrain the impulse and guide 
it to wise ends. We have been right in their repressible 
missionary and evangelistic passion, born of experience 
of God's redeeming grace in Christ. We have been 
wrong in so far as we have failed to make that passion 
effective through adequate educational equipment. We 
have been wise in standing for Christian and denomina- 
tional education, in order to make our proper contribu- 
tion to the world, but wrong whenever we have failed 
to recognize the relation of our work to that of general 
education. 

Now, a few closing words as to the present duty of 
Baptists are in order. For one thing, we must grasp 
more clearly and hold more firmly the immediate and 
vital connection between our spiritual life and our 
educational zeal. We must more adequately endow our 
schools of higher learning. We must no longer give to 
education a secondaryplace.Wemust correlate our edu- 
cational with our missionary enterprise in our denomi- 
national life and machinery. We must cultivate the edu- 
cational ideal in the pulpit, as that ideal has been so well 
expounded by the distinguished president of this insti- 
tution. We must not forget that all our enterprise and 
zeal will fail of their end unless anchored to education. 

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"TSe music and splendor 
Survive not the lamp and the lute; 

The hearts echoes render 
No sound -when the spirit is mute." 

If the lamp of learning burns low, the spirit will grow 
dumb in its effort to speak for God. If the lute-strings 
in our educational system are broken, the music which 
lures men to higher things will die away. Our task is 
a vast one, and our equipment should be the highest 
and best. 

We need the mood of all the great builders, because 
our task is essentially a constructive one. We need the 
imagination of the architect, because we are building a 
human temple with living men as stones. We need the 
passion of the great poet, because divine fire alone can 
fuse human spirits into the unity and glory of the image 
of God. We need the patience of the great painter and 
sculptor, because the human material on which we labor 
is refractory and yields but slowly. We need the in- 
spiration of the great composer, because we live essen- 
tially in a world of spiritual harmonies, and it is only 
as we are swayed by the eternal music that is sound- 
ing itself forever through the heart of God that we 
can do His work in the world. We need the sense of 
proportion of the landscape gardener and his skill in 
combining the features of a landscape into harmoni- 
ous unity, because we must take human nature as it is in 
all ranks and conditions and combine it into spiritual 
harmony. We need the constructive genius of the great 
statesman, because we are a vast people ourselves and 
deal with vast problems. We need education and cul- 
ture, because our method of winning men is the appeal 
to reason and conscience. We need skill to touch human 

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Religious History of the University 

motives and the springs of human action, because we 
can appeal to men only through the highest there is in 
them. We cannot compel men by authority or attract 
them by external pomp and grandeur. We have but one 
way of making men, and that is through the lure of 
the eternal, the fadeless splendor of righteousness, the 
matchless potency of love, and the undying power of 
religion itself. 

President Isaac Sharpless, LL.D., of Haverford Col- 
lege, was introduced by the Presiding Officer, and 
delivered an address on " Quaker Ideals in Education : " 

TWO streams of tendency have come down 
through the Christian centuries. The main current 
has been composed of those who demanded an external 
authority for their standard of belief and conduct. For 
Catholics this standard was the decision of the Church, 
the organized body of Christ, continuous from the time 
of the apostles, meeting the new questions as they 
arose, but guided by the deliverances of the past. For 
Protestants it was the Book, the original and unchange- 
able writings of the first-century Christians, revealed 
once for all to a selected body of disciples of Christ and 
applicable to all generations to come. Neither standard 
would exclude the other. It was a question of supreme 
authority rather than of acceptance, a matter of prior- 
ity rather than of denial. 

Besides this main current there was also a little 
stream, trickling down through the ages, sometimes 
almost lost but again emerging in stronger volume, 
of those who, while not discarding either the Church or 
the Book, denied the absolute necessity of any external 
authority. They recognized the corporate teachings of 
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the great and good men whose influence had kept the 
Church in the main true to the standards of its founder, 
and they reverenced the word committed to the first 
generation, but they conceived that neither of them 
could exactly speak to the individual condition, that in 
the application of these great truths the man was often 
left without the guide needed to show him the way. 
They asserted the consciousness of a divine authority, 
the same that granted wisdom and insight to the Church 
and that revealed the principles which made the Book 
holy, as existing within themselves sufficiently evident 
to determine the way, the truth, and the life for them 
as individuals. It came from the highest sources and 
its authority could not be gainsaid. It would not conflict 
with other revelations, but it would give definite guid- 
ance and strength and comfort and a sense of divine 
approval or disapproval exactly adapted to the needs 
of the personality in every circumstance of life. 

One needs only to mention St. Francis and Caspar 
Schwenckfeld and Jacob Boehme and Madame Guyon 
as a few among many mystics who have been in- 
terpreters of this tendency. They bound themselves in 
spirit with the personality which was revealed in the 
Gospels ; they would compel no one except by the bonds 
of love, and would sufi^er patiently and bravely whatever 
befell, assured by their inward witness that they were 
in the right place, and that the Master who directed 
their lives would bring them and their works into the 
triumphs which He intended. In this line of spiritual 
ancestry may be placed George Fox and the early 
Friends. We are concerned with them now only in so 
far as their beliefs and practice affected their attitude 
toward higher education in America. 
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Religious History of the University 

The incentive that led to the foundation of Harvard, 
Yale, and Princeton, and to a lesser extent some of the 
other colonial colleges, was the education of the min- 
istry. Harvard has expressed it very definitely :" After 
God had carried us safe to New England, and we had 
builded our houses, provided necessaries for our liveli- 
hood, rear'd convenient places for God's worship, and 
settled the Civill Government; One of the next things 
we longed for and looked after was to advance Learn- 
ing, and perpetuate it to Posterity, dreading to leave 
an illiterate Ministry to the churches, when our present 
Ministers shall lie in the dust." 

There was as good a numerical background for a 
Quaker college in Pennsylvania in the first half of the 
eighteenth century as in Connecticut for a Congrega- 
tional college or in New Jersey for a Presbyterian col- 
lege. Indeed, for a few decades it might seem to have 
been doubtful whether the religion of authority or the 
religion of the Spirit was to be the prevailing religion 
of the colonies. Had the latter been represented by vig- 
orous intellectual exponents of its thought, giving to 
each congregation of Friends at least one clear-thinking 
leader, whether minister or not ( better not ) , capable 
of seeing into the future and adapting methods to con- 
ditions, the history of the colonies and of the future 
states might have been differently written. It did not 
need defense so much as exposition, and for lack of this 
its followers became conservative, falling back upon 
the methods of the brave and original men of the first 
generation, imitators rather than pioneers. 

There was a considerable number of university men 
among Friends of the first generation, and a fair pro- 
portion of these came to Pennsylvania. They started 
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a school in Philadelphia in 1689, still in honored exist- 
ence. Why did they not have a college and train their 
educated leaders ? Because the education of the schools 
did not seem to them essential to a minister. To the 
Puritan of New England, the Presbyterian of the mid- 
dle colonies, and the Churchman of the south, with a 
religion based on a knowledge of the Bible, a minis- 
ter without theological knowledge could hardly be ima- 
gined. Without him the congregation would not meet, 
or would meet to no purpose. To the Friend such train- 
ing might or might not be an asset, but as every man 
was taught of God, and the group spirit intensified the 
interior influence of His presence, worship of the sin- 
cerest sort could dwell in the silence, or inspired min- 
istry could be uttered by the man or the woman who 
had no antecedent training of the schools. 

George Fox says that it was "opened to him" — a 
favorite expression for stating what he believed to be 
a direct divine revelation — "that being bred at Oxford 
or Cambridge was not essential to the making of a min- 
ister of the Gospel." His generation indorsed this po- 
sition, placing the emphasis on the word "essential;" 
as Thomas Elwood, John Milton's secretary, explains, 
" When I was a boy I had made some progress in learn- 
ing and lost it all before I came to be a man. Nor was 
I rightly sensible of ray loss until I came among the 
Quakers. But I saw it and lamented it and applied 
myself with utmost diligence to recover it. So false I 
found that charge to be that they despised and denied 
all human learning because they deemed it not to be 
essentially necessary to a Gospel Ministry." 

The Friends that came to America feeling, therefore, 
that an educated ministry was not essential postponed 

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Religious History of the University 

their college till the really essential things were pro- 
vided, and this delay proved serious. For a generation 
arose which had no higher training and did not feel 
its need; which also perhaps, in some cases, construed 
Fox's " essential" into " desirable," and decided that edu- 
cation rather encouraged what they called the" notional 
religion," which Fox contrasted with the real living first- 
hand experience of God's working in the heart. As the ' 
ministry did not need a theological education, and as 
they had thrown down the definite distinction between 
ministers and laymen, refusing to admit priestly offices 
in their ministers as a class, there seemed no vital need 
for Quaker colleges, and there were none till 1833. 
The Friends had something to do with the founding 
and maintenance of Brown University, of the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania, of Cornell University, and of Johns 
Hopkins University. They had an educational system 
of their own that in many sections was the best exist- 
ing, which took care of the primary and secondary train- 
ing of their children and those of their neighbors, and 
they had a high level of average culture. For gen- 
eral secular work some went to existing colleges, and 
among themselves they developed groups of rather 
highly educated persons, as in Philadelphia just prior 
to the Revolution. But they had not the general belief 
in and respect for higher learning which gave to edu- 
cated leadership its due influence, and which furnished 
the perspective which enabled men to see that the 
religion of the Spirit would not be hurt by, but indeed, 
in the development of its efficient manifestations, was 
dependent upon, something more human than spiritual 
guidance in the heart. Perhaps within a century past 
Friends have seen these things. While not yielding 

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their devotion to the ancient principle, they have felt 
that colleges may be its handmaids rather than, as the 
most of them were in colonial days, its opponents. So 
it w^as that, partly as a result of their mystical inherit- 
ance, a result unforeseen and somewhat illogical, the 
Friends as a denomination have had but little place in 
the higher education of the first century of American 
development. 

They could not but come into collision with New 
England Puritanism, for the two represented antago- 
nistic types of religion ; the one studying a theology 
which was fixed and static, working it out by sheer in- 
tellectual force and strategy from the pages of a book 
completed centuries before, but by that very study keep- 
ing his brain alive and active, the other with a progres- 
sive and continuing revelation on which he too much 
relied to do all the necessary work of mankind, becom- 
ing himself somewhat static under conditions which de- 
manded constant change and adaptation. 

Any emphatic mystical movement is more or less 
temporary. It gathers to itself those who by tempera- 
ment are peculiarly susceptible to direct spiritual influ- 
ences. It transmits its name and organization to its de- 
scendants, but its susceptibility is not always inherited. 
Birthright membership, whether a rule of its discipline 
or a tradition, does not necessarily include only the mys- 
tical members of the second generation, and each suc- 
ceeding generation goes farther and farther from the 
capacity to live on direct spiritual revelation. Only by 
a continuous influx of the spiritually minded from out- 
side can such a society be continued. For this purpose, 
only by a continual adaptation of the non-essential ele- 
ments of the regulations to new conditions can an asso- 
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Religious History of the University 

elation attractive to the mystics be maintained, and this 
involves some worldly wisdom and a broad grasp of 
surrounding movements, and consequently a need for 
much of trained capacity and higher education. 

Yet the ability to feel the direct impulse from higher 
sources, while varying in degree, is never entirely ab- 
sent, and this ability may be a safe basis upon which to 
build a growing church, if there is also a full recogni- 
tion of the needs of those who cannot live on introver- 
sion alone. The man who wants an external authority 
and who would precipitate himself into community life 
around him will exist everywhere. Hence Friends had 
a large place in the political and social life of the colony 
of Rhode Island, and this accounts for my being here 
to-day. 

Roger Williams had no love for them. " The people 
called Quakers," he says, " hold no God, no Christ, no 
Spirit, no Angel, no Devil, no Resurrection, no Judg- 
ment, no Heaven, no Hell, but what is in man." Yet, 
bad as they were, he would not allow his principle of re- 
ligious liberty to have any exceptions, and he accorded 
them all political and legal rights. But he reserved the 
very proper weapon of argument. And when he found 
that people who, like himself, had left Massachusetts 
voluntarily or otherwise for his free colony, or had 
gathered there from England, were becoming Quak- 
ers by the thousands, his spirit arose within him. The 
great debate of August, 1672, in the meeting-house at 
Newport, whither Roger Williams, a man in his seven- 
ties, had rowed thirty miles to keep the appointment, 
was characterized by the utmost freedom, one can 
hardly say courtesy, of debate. 

George Fox himself had just been there, and had 

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made a great impression, so Roger Williams proposed 
a joint discussion on certain propositions which he had 
drawn up ; but by this time George Fox had moved on. 
Roger said : " He saw that consequences would roll down 
the mountains, and therefore this old Fox thought it 
best to run for it and leave the work to his journeymen 
and chaplains to perform in his absence." Avoidance of 
an issue was never Fox's habit, and he may be believed 
when he says, " I never saw or heard of any proposi- 
tions from Roger Williams, nor did I go away in fear 
of him or them." But some of Fox's friends accepted 
the challenge, and who got the better of the debate 
depends on the party giving the account. "George 
Fox digged out his Burrowes" and "A New England 
Firebrand Quenched" were the two books whose con- 
tents were about as gracious as their titles, which tell 
the story of the two sides. Each utterly demolished the 
other, and neither Baptists nor Quakers had anything 
left to stand upon. According to William Edmundson, 
who conducted the debate for the Friends, "The bitter 
old man could make nothing out. He was baffled and 
the people saw his weakness, folly and envy ;" and ac- 
cording to Williams, Edmundson was "A flash of wit, 
a face of brass, and a tongue set on fire from the Hell 
of Lies and Fury." 

These amenities of controversy can hardly indicate 
the feelings of the people in general, for a Quaker was 
then governor by vote of the people and presided at the 
discussion. For a century following they were continu- 
ally in high office, and during this time they held the 
governorship for thirty-six terms. Coddington, Easton, 
Clarke, Coggeshall, Carr, Wanton, were names of 
Friends in this highest office in the colony and mould- 

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Religious History of the University 

ing its policy. It is not strange, therefore, that when in 
1764 the University was founded, and important ele- 
ments were sought to be enlisted in its support, the 
Friends were accorded a place on its Board. 

As in Pennsylvania, the attitude of an official during 
war times was difficult. Committed to uncompromising 
peace, he was yet under the British crown which de- 
clared war at will, and England and France fought out 
their quarrels along the Canadian frontier. The Indians, 
exasperated by an ungenerous policy, sought vengeance 
in blood, and here the Rhode Island governors had not 
the power, as in Pennsylvania, to quiet the difficulty by 
presents and promises. They contented themselves with 
devising measures of safety, performing no aggressive 
acts, and mollifying feelings on both sides where pos- 
sible. With all these difficulties, the Friends performed 
in full the duties of citizens, as did other Christians, 
taking, till the Revolutionary War, their share of so- 
cial government and responsibility. George Fox had 
advised them when in the colony : " Look into all your 
ancient liberties and privileges — your divine liberty — 
your national liberty, and your outward liberties, which 
belong to your commons, your town and your island 
colony. Mind that which is for the good of your colony 
and the commonwealth of all people — stand for the 
good of your people which is the good of yourselves." 

In the Revolutionary War, which practically ended 
Quaker influence in politics, they had a difficult stand 
to take. Opposed to war, they yet had been associates 
with the liberty party in the different colonies in close 
political adhesion. They had found how to gain their 
rights in England and America by persistent remon- 
strance and quiet resistance, and were willing to try 
L91 ] 



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the same again when taxes and impositions were un- 
righteously levied upon them. But they would not fight, 
for fighting they thought was an immoral means of 
gaining even a worthy object, and so they adopted 
the policy, which made them extremely unpopular, of 
peaceable neutrality for conscience' sake. 

Pennsylvania was settled by English immigrants 
who were mostly Friends when they came. Rhode Is- 
land and southeastern Massachusetts were converted 
to Quakerism mainly as the result of the preaching of 
itinerant ministers who swarmed the country, pushing 
in most vigorously where they were least wanted. Yet 
they were working in the same soil that had proved 
so fertile in England. The people were Friends, though 
they knew it not. A religion of quietism, of an inward re- 
vealed knowledge of truth, of kindliness, and peace, and 
of uncompromising morality behind a meek exterior, 
— these were characteristics of the dissenters from the 
rigid Massachusetts system, and when they heard them 
preached as organized religion, they simply found out 
what they were. In Connecticut, where such a dissatis- 
fied and prepared population did not exist, the Friends 
made no headway, dash themselves against the stone 
wall of ecclesiasticism as they would. 

Though the colonial Friends got somewhat tangled 
up in their own theology, and did not establish colleges 
as others did, and as their numbers and consequence 
might have justified, there are certain features of early 
Quakerism which it might not be amiss to instill into 
our college system of to-day. 

The Friends of past ages somehow were on the 
right side of a number of moral questions very early in 
the history of the movements. By the right side one 

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Religious History of the University- 
means the side that commended itself to the devel- 
oped judgment of the future. There never was a Quaker 
duel. There never was a Quaker lottery, even in those 
days following the Revolution when all good causes, 
churches, colleges, public improvements of all sorts, 
were promoted by them ; when George Washington 
did not hesitate to be the president of a lottery company 
to develop the capital city ; when a raffle was the easy 
and approved method of settling an estate. A century 
before this Friends had decided against them, and 
would disown a member who bought a ticket. 

The contest against slavery dates from 1688. In the 
days just before and during the Revolution the manu- 
mission of all Quaker slaves was practically brought 
to a close, and by the end of the century not one 
who could be legally freed was held by any Friendly 
master even in Virginia and the Carolinas. Up to 1863 
their corporate influence was consistently and urgently 
brought to bear upon the government. 

The fight against war has not had such triumphant 
ending. From the time when George Fox said, when im- 
portuned to take the captaincy of a Cromwellian Com- 
pany, that he "lived by virtue of that spirit that took 
away the occasion of war," there has been a fairly con- 
sistent testimony against it, and seventy years of peace- 
ful Pennsylvania history when all the other colonies 
had records of warfare indicate possibilities of peace 
with justice which is worth some study. If now the call 
comes up from Boards of Trade, from Labor Unions, 
from the Christian churches, from civilized man every- 
where, that wars must cease, it but indicates the stage 
of the movement when economic and social arguments 
come to the succor of the moral principles which the 
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pioneers had urged. The converse of the formula of 
Archbishop Paley, " Whatever is right is expedient," 
has many supporters. 

But how did all this happen.? The Friends were no 
more intelligent, no more highly educated, no more 
anxious to do right, than others. They had no better 
organization, no more efficient leadership. Is there any 
explanation more reasonable than the one they them- 
selves would have given, that when they got together in 
their quiet assemblies, with thoughts turned reverently 
to the source of good impulses, in Whittier's words, 

" The presence of the -wrong and right 
They rather felt than sazv" P 

In this time when reformatory zeal is at its highest, 
when everything in church and state is liable to a change 
which is sometimes a betterment, when new standards 
are continually set up, would it be amiss to approach 
the subjects in this quiet manner with mind and heart 
open to suggestions from the upper as well as the lower 
sources, and so try to find what things are reforms and 
what measures will be in the future non-effective? If 
our colleges are, as we often claim, educating the lead- 
ers of thought and method, might they not find a factor 
here, sometimes neglected, and determine whether a 
group consciousness under proper conditions has any- 
thing to do with the determination of right and wrong, 
of expediency and useless and unwise effort."* 

Then these early Friends were preachers of literal 
truthfulness. To make excessive claims for themselves 
or their goods was a proper object for inquiry and re- 
proof by their overseers .They obj ected to calling a build- 
ing a church because a church was something else, 

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Religious History of the University 

and the name was a claim to special holiness about the 
locality. The j/oM to one person then recently introduced 
into England was untruthful, and so they said thou and 
thee to every one. So also they objected to oaths be- 
cause they would not have two standards. Some of these 
things were doubtless strained, and whatever vitality 
the testimonies had has passed away. They kept alive, 
however, the habit of stating the exact truth. 

Who will deny that our system of higher education 
needs something of this tonic. Even the nomenclature 
is corrupted. "To graduate" once meant to finish with 
a degree, or to receive one. But our little schools of all 
sorts now graduate their boys and girls regularly. A 
"Professor "was once a teacher of high grade — now 
every pedagogue may usurp the title. " University," a 
term of ancient and honorable history, may now be held 
by the meanest and most dishonest private adventure 
school. Catalogues of little-known colleges claim, " Our 
reputation for educational efficiency is world wide. " " Our 
courses cover the same ground as the best institutions 
of the country." Finally, "It is still true that the major- 
ity of the institutions of the United States bearing the 
name of University or College take every student that 
they can get quite regardless of their academic qualifi- 
cations." These quotations come from the recent Car- 
negie Foundation report, but does not many a college 
man know, not in his own catalogue but in that of his 
dearest rival, of claims advanced which are not hterally 
fulfilled, and announcements made which attract guile- 
less students, but do not deceive them after entrance? 
Is all this making it possible for these same students to 
cite the example of their college in justifying the fraud 
in some of our college athletics, and every shifty game 
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of business or politics in after life ? Has it anything to do 
with our national standards, which too often applaud 
a sharp and temporarily successful strategy of dubious 
morality ? 

There are, I believe, something like one thousand 
institutions in the United States calling themselves col- 
leges and universities. About six hundred of these are 
recognized by the Bureau of Washington, and its stan- 
dard is not extravagantly high. It excludes from the 
list institutions not previously there which have fewer 
than twenty collegiate students, which have never 
given a bachelor's degree (though why there should be 
any of this sort, I fail to see ) , and those which have too 
little equipment, physical and intellectual, to do satis- 
factory work. Even among the six hundred, when one 
analyzes the facilities for higher education, one has to 
confess that there is much to be desired, and only a few 
of the states have any legislation that will correct the 
evil. Of course the names are assumed and the claims 
made to gather in students. " Colleges may do for the 
east, but the west want the best of everything," said a 
defender of a pretentious title covering a meagre equip- 
ment. " Our youth must have a University education." 
But the west is probably no greater sinner than the east 
or south. Is there no need to press upon college people 
the gospel of literal truthfulness? 

Then the early Friends had a strong testimony to 
democracy. I do not know exactly what democracy is. 
It is not equality of income or of efficiency. Thomas 
Jefferson for a brief time seemed to think that it meant 
that Presidential bad manners should be equal to the 
average. Others about the same period thought that it 
meant a dollar a day wages, whether the recipient was 

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Religious History of the University 

a day laborer or a judge or a senator. In education it 
has often meant that the lower end of the class shall 
be pushed on and the upper end held back to produce 
equality of attainment at the time of promotion. Let us 
suggest in education another definition. Democracy is 
that condition where every youth has equal opportu- 
nity to develop the best that is in him, and apply this to 
the bright ambitious boy as to the dullard, to the boy of 
vast possibilities whose life will in influence outweigh 
hundreds of others as to him who fills out faithfully 
his humbler career of follower or drudge. It may have 
been a weakness of our school system of all grades that 
the really first-rate, strong youth has been neglected 
on the supposition that he could take care of himself, 
forgetting that though he may not need stimulation, he 
may need direction ; though not constant coaching, yet 
perhaps wise incentive to make the best of a great 
opportunity. 

But the Friends had some idea of democracy, define 
it as we will. This vast suffering which they endured 
as a testimony was a symbol of superiority. The regi- 
cide judges wore their hats before Charles I, and in 
the next century, one of the first claims made by the 
third estate of the National Assembly of France was the 
right to have their heads covered in the presence of the 
nobility and clergy. Fox and his friends would grant 
this mark of inferiority to no one, judge or magistrate, 
priest or king, nor require it of others. When William 
Penn came before Charles II with his hat on, the affa- 
ble monarch remarked that it was customary for only 
one to be covered in that presence and removed his 
own. It was a testimony to some sort of equality, as 
was also the thou and thee to all men at a time when the 
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obsequiousness of the age gave the plural pronoun 
to their betters and the singular to those below. The 
Quaker conscience worked where all true reformatory 
movements must always work, in the realm of little 
things. 

The men with such devotion to democracy could not 
be otherwise than preachers of religious liberty. To the 
plausible argument that because the Friends had now 
a province of their own in Pennsylvania, they should 
have special privileges there, William Penn replied: 
" We should then do what we have cried out against 
others for doing," and the argument ceased. Roger 
Williams hated Quakerism with all the strength of his 
nature. He was sure it was devil-born and thwarted all 
his beliefs concerning Christianity. But he was, in his 
early life, in his book, "The Bloody Tenent of Perse- 
cution for Conscience Sake," a pioneer for religious lib- 
erty. He had suffered for it and, more convincing than 
all, when he had the power he granted it to these hated 
schismatics. Penn at a later date, under more happy con- 
ditions and on a larger scale, gave it to his colonists in 
full measure. When, in 1 787, the constitutional fathers 
were gathering together the various successful experi- 
ments of one hundred years of the governmental his- 
tory of the thirteen colonies, they found the vital prin- 
ciples not in the dogmatism of early Massachusetts 
or the class system of Virginia, but in the civil and 
religious liberty wrought out with pain and effort by 
Rhode Island and Pennsylvania. 

The political descendants of Roger Williams and 

William Penn cannot force upon unwilling consciences 

a religious education. However necessary from the point 

of view of the appreciation of our literature, crammed 

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Religious History of the University 

as it is with Biblical references, or from the continuity of 
our history, builded and buttressed with Christian ideas, 
may be the inculcation of Bible truths into the Ameri- 
can youthful mind, yet the freedom of conscience is too. 
precious an inheritance to lose. It may be possible, as is 
done with moderate success in England and Germany, 
to find a method of teaching religious history and be- 
lief that will be acceptable to the great mass of taxpay- 
ers with some conscience clause that will exempt the 
others. This is a problem of constructive arrangement 
that we may work out. For undoubtedly the broad 
truths of Christianity are still welcome in most Ameri- 
can households, and the Church and Sunday-school 
do not reach them effectually as means of instruction, 
however valuable their spiritual impulses may be. At 
present, therefore, if the Bible is to be taught as effec- 
tively as geography and geometry, it must be done in 
schools created and maintained by private endeavor. 
Such schools would perform a service which could not 
be expected of those supported by the taxes of the gen- 
eral public. And as the life of Christ in the heart is more 
important than knowledge about Him, the wide field 
of influence is open to every Christian prophet and 
teacher, clerical or lay. 

Of recent times we can speak less than of old of de- 
nominational influence in education or anything else. 
Men are accepting by battalions the doctrines of other 
churches while still holding to their old names and 
lineage. If one denomination is more a religion of au- 
thority and another a religion of the spirit, it is a matter 
of emphasis rather than of exclusion. One can plead 
then for a type of thought as applied to higher education 
without speaking denominationally. One can see that a 

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dogmatic theology is not the ground on which a really 
effective system of higher education can be profitably 
sown. Is it an accident that when Massachusetts de- 
. parted from her narrow conventions and became the 
home of a broader liberty, her great college assumed 
a priority due to other causes than her right to primo- 
geniture ? 

The bases of real collegiate success must lie in the 
field of thought, in spiritual and intellectual liberty, and 
in the field of morals in honesty, sincerity, and sim- 
plicity, both of the individual and the institution. The 
group which can bring these about, whatever its name, 
is true to the best ideals of higher education, and the 
group which in the past has most effectively preached 
and practiced them deserves well at our hands. 

President John Martin Thomas, D.D., of Middle- 
bury College, was then introduced, and gave an address 
on " The Puritan Basis of Education : " 

THE first rules for the government of students 
of Harvard College, printed in 1643, prescribe 
that " every student be plainly instructed and earnestly 
pressed to consider well, the maine end of his life and 
studies is, to know God and Jesus Christ which is eter- 
nall life,Joh. 1 7.3. and therefore to lay Christ in the bot- 
tome,as the only foundation of all sound knowledge and 
Learning." They further enjoin that "every one shall 
so exercise himselfe in reading the Scriptures twice a 
day, that he shall be ready to give such an account of 
his proficiency therein, both in Theoretticall observa- 
tions of the Language, and in Logick, and in Practicall 
and spirituall truths, as his Tutor shall require, accord- 
ing to his ability ; seeing the entrance of the word giv- 
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Religious History of the University 

eth light, it giveth understanding to the simple, Psalm 
119, ISO." 

The significant fact in these rules is not the quantity 
of Scripture, but the fundamental place of religion in 
the educational scheme. The main end of studies is to 
know God. The true educational procedure is "to lay 
Christ in the bottome." Light and understanding come 
from the entrance of the Word. Religion is conceived 
as the very soul of education ; its records and testimo- 
nies are the content of instruction, its exercises and 
practices are enjoined as the principal occupation of stu- 
dent time, and its benefits and graces are the chief end 
to be sought. 

This is the historic position of the New England col- 
lege of Puritan or Congregational ancestry. The min- 
isters of the New Haven colony who laid their books 
on the table at Branford in 1701 for the founding of a 
college were possessed of the same conviction of the 
fundamental position of religion in education as had 
inspired the founders of Harvard in 1636. The insti- 
tutions later established by men of the same blood and 
faith, both within New England and beyond her bounds, 
were no less persuaded that religion must be the heart 
and centre of academic endeavor. 

It was not alone in the sphere of higher education that 
religious instruction was exalted to the highest place, 
but in educational schemes of every grade. The reign 
of the New England Primer in the common schools 
down almost to the opening of the nineteenth century 
is sufficient evidence of this fact. The first act of the 
General Court of Massachusetts with reference to pop- 
ular education was a request to the elders of the Church, 
in 1641 , to prepare "a catechism for the instruction of 

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Brown University- 
youth in the grounds of religion." The Church was the 
guardian and support of the school, lower not less than 
higher. 

The familiar conclusion from this fact is the exceed- 
ing strenuous piety of our ancestors. The more im- 
portant observation is their conception of the place of 
religion in education. In preparing a catechism for the 
instruction of youth in the grounds of religion they had 
the welfare of the rising generation in mind,in this world 
as in the next, not less than the most recent benefactor 
of some industrial high school. The catechism was for 
the children, not the children for the catechism, as has 
sometimes been unjustly inferred. The curriculum of 
the New England college in the seventeenth and eigh- 
teenth centuries, surcharged with divinity and the sacred 
languages, was not less a sincere and earnest endeavor 
to provide the best possible training of youth and to equip 
them most practically for the duties of life than the cur- 
ricula of our colleges to-day. Indeed, I am not sure but 
that the fathers were more minded to prepare young 
men for service needed in the world, and less fearful 
of giving them something practical and professionally 
helpful, than are their successors. They had in mind the 
needs of the commonwealth when their present minis- 
ters should lie in the dust. They were not enamored of 
a particular plan of education which they had received 
in their youth, and which they were zealous in turn 
to pass on to others. They were filled with ambition to 
train up men for work then needed, and they projected 
the best plan of studies and discipline they knew, within 
the limit of their resources, for the making of such men. 
In that conscientious and devout endeavor they pre- 
scribed the Bible in the ancient tongues as the first text- 

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Religious History of the University 

book, and the exposition of divine truth and Christian 
morals as the summit of studies. 

We do not sustain their tradition when we offer 
an elective in the Major Prophets and the Life of Paul, 
which a student may employ to even up difficult courses 
in Mathematics and the History of Philosophy. A divin- 
ity professor explained to me the presence of a hea- 
then, in race, creed, and morals, in his course upon the 
History of the Mediaeval Church, by the general stu- 
dent conviction that any subject which had the word" re- 
ligion "in its title was supposed to be soft and simple. 
It should go without saying that whatever we teach in a 
college of Puritan ancestry in the History of Religion, 
in Biblical Literature, or in Christian Ethics, will be 
as thoroughly scientific, as resolutely critical, and as 
devoutly difficult as any branch of Mathematics or any 
specialty in Economics . The successors of Cotton Mather 
have no business to be soft and simple. 

Even then, when the department of Biblical Litera- 
ture or the History of Religion is on a parity in aca- 
demic earnestness and in student respect with any other 
department of the college, we do not sustain the Puri- 
tan tradition in religious education until certain other 
conditions are fulfilled. In the first place, there is no de- 
partment in which the instructor needs more to remem- 
ber that he is teaching, not primarily a subject, but men. 
Rehgion cannot be taught disinterestedly, as a pure sci- 
ence. It has to do with the vital concerns of those who 
learn, with the deepest problems of their life, with the 
questions on which they have wondered and dreamed 
from their childish days. They cannot be kept from in- 
quiry in the class-room as to what they shall believe and 
what principles they shall adopt for life. They should 
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not be kept from such searchings of heart as to per- 
sonal convictions when they study the faiths and the 
struggles for faith of the human race. They have a right 
to expect that their own serious interests shall be borne 
in mind, and that some light may dawn for them on the 
problems of their own souls. Any course in religion, 
scientific though it must be in method, with full wel- 
come to the severest critical analysis and respect for 
its results, must nevertheless have its bearing on the 
permanent religious problems of men, which were 
never more pressing than at the present day. 

The Old and New Testaments are literature, but 
they are literature quick with summons to duty, with 
rally calls to faith, with direct application to the indi- 
vidual. The writings of prophets, psalmists, and apos- 
tles are not truly taught and interpreted as mere litera- 
ture, with questions of date and authorship and style : 
they are messages to the souls of men, and they are 
justly interpreted only when their truth flashes direct 
to the conscience of the man who studies them. As well 
teach art without any glow of enthusiasm for beauty 
as to instruct from Isaiah and Paul without spiritual 
appeal. 

Rehgious instruction in our colleges has failed of its 
largest effect because it has not been sufficiently reli- 
gious. In the reaction from unscientific methods in the- 
ology and uncritical use of Scripture we have filled up 
our courses with criticism and science and left out the 
spirit and the soul. We have analyzed the husk and for- 
gotten the kernel. If the courses in the department of 
religion were known as searching and vital studies of 
the enduring religious problems of humanity, and of the 
questions of faith which confront every man who lives 



Religious History of the University 

earnestly, on the basis of the great literatures which 
deal with those questions, and if it were a matter of 
common knowledge that every student taking such 
courses would be brought day after day to real grip with 
the very issues of life, our religious teaching would 
strengthen mightily its hold upon the student heart. 
Only by such procedure can we carry out the Puritan 
tradition in religious education ; and that much of the 
tradition at least we can doubtless all agree should be 
preserved. 

We do not reach the heart of the matter when we 
strengthen and humanize a few courses, usually elected 
by a small fraction of the student body, in one of the 
many inviting departments which compete for the at- 
tention of upper-classmen. What shall we say of the 
Puritan conviction that the "main end of studies" is 
to know God, and that the true educational method is 
"to lay Christ in the bottome"? Has religion any place 
in determining the fundamental aims and spirit of the 
work of a college and in setting the goal of endeavor in 
the several arts and sciences.'' 

We have come a long way from the religious belief 
of Cotton Mather and James Manning; and no one 
would seriously propose to bring back their system of 
doctrine as an element of college teaching, or to intro- 
duce into the discipline of a university their extremes 
of religious manner. But these were only accidental 
and temporary accompaniments of a principle which 
lay deeper than their regulations of rehgious practice 
and the particular articles of their creed. That principle 
was that the purpose of education is the development 
of freedom in the soul of man, the establishment of his 
spirit in the possession of truth which enables him to be 

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himself despite the worst that the world may do unto 
him. They sought to make men victors in this world of 
mighty material forces, and to assure the triumph of the 
spirit of man in the face of all that tends to crush and 
subdue it. Separated by the great sea from the culture 
and civilization of the ages, behind them the forests 
and wilds of a far-stretching continent, their liberties, 
their homes, their very lives insecure, from their nar- 
row homes on the borders of a new and unknown world 
they sought to lift their spirits to the great God in whom 
is eternal safety and peace. In fellowship with Him they 
would triumph over every failure in their earthly lot, 
and take orders to their heart only from the uncon- 
quered soul within them. They prescribed religion as 
the end of studies in order that their children might 
have the same victory over the world as they them- 
selves had wrested through their faith. 

Divested of the forms of thought and the religious 
manner of a particular day, their principle that the re- 
ligious motive, which is the establishment of freedom 
in the soul of man, shall guide and inspire every study 
and every instructor is as valid and valuable as in the 
age when the founders of New England education ap- 
plied it so resolutely and in a manner so foreign to our 
thought. The main end of studies still is the victory of 
the spirit in the life of man. Our enthusiasm is to enable 
youth to reach fulfillment of the promise — Thou shalt 
have dominion. Our motive is the very heart of religion, 
the endeavor to establish men in security of spirit in this 
world of conflict and suffering and tragedy. By health 
of body , keenness of mind, and intensity of will we seek 
to enable them to put up a good fight; by discipline 
of spirit and nobility of character we endeavor to lift 



Religious History of the University 

them above every defeat, that whatever the buffeting, 
baffling world may do to them, they may be secure in 
inner triumph. 

With this holy ambition we cannot deny our fellow- 
ship with the prophets. It is a religious benefit we are 
seeking to bestow. We may not have called it such, but 
our consecration to the high calling of leading youth to 
the victory that overcometh the world is faith. 

It is the religious spirit which is responsible for our 
tenacious hold on the humanities. Sometimes our devo- 
tion to humane learning is attributed to sheer conserv- 
atism, or to prejudice, and perhaps often we ourselves 
render an insufficient justification, and support our pas- 
sion by unsound argument. The deep underlying cause 
of the attachment of the Puritan college to liberal stud- 
ies is the worth of those studies in the cultivation of 
the free spirit. My fundamental need as a man is not 
to know how things are made and put together, nor 
how they act and react on one another, but rather how 
I, physically the veriest atom of the universe, may rise 
superior to the entire sum of the mass of matter, and 
be myself, despite the boundless universe of form and 
stuff; Therefore I must study chiefly the victors who 
have gone before me : I must study history because it is 
the story of victors in the realm of action ; I must mas- 
ter the literatures of great peoples, modern and ancient, 
that from them I may draw in the courage by which 
they overcame; I must study religion, also, because it 
is the work of heroes of belief; and faith, in this world 
of difficulty, has helped men most to overcome. 

Humanity's contest is not with Nature ; she is our ally 
and our friend. Our fight is within, and the weapons that 
tell are not carnal, not physical : they are the truth the 

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prophets have forged out of life; the songs the poets 
have opened their hearts to hear; the visions the mar- 
tyrs have caught from God ; the words of spirit and life 
which men of thought and insight of all creeds and 
times have written for the learning of those who would 
hold their human heritage. We will not let go our grip 
on that which is high, and our upward striving man- 
hood chains us to the humanities, in whose pursuit alone 
we can keep to our human estate. 

The religious basis of education indicates also the 
spirit in which all studies should be pursued and the 
object and purpose which must be sought in them. All 
branches of knowledge should be followed in a college 
in a humane spirit and unto a human end. The study 
of the classics in college is not to make classical scholars 
chiefly, but to induce mastery of the quahties of mind 
and spirit embodied in the classical literatures. It is the 
soul of Homer we are after, not the language of Homer, 
nor even the mental aptitudes which may be induced in 
the pursuit of that language. The study of the sciences 
is not primarily for the facts of material and economic 
value they contain, but for the sense of proportion, the 
reverence, the humility they induce in one who comes 
to know something of the history and the laws of this 
marvelous universe. The question for present education 
is not whether science or letters should be chiefly pur- 
sued, but whether science, and letters also, shall be fol- 
lowed in a utilitarian and materialistic spirit, or with a 
view to the larger development of manhood. The value 
of the tradition of the religious basis of our education is 
that it sanctified all studies to the building of a man- 
hood spiritually free. 

The religious spirit, therefore, has still much to con- 
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Religious History of the University- 
tribute to American education. By its insistence on per- 
sonal values it sends us to the humanities, those studies 
in which alone we discover and maintain our worth. By 
the fires it kindles for the victory of the spirit over all 
things and forces, it sanctifies our industry and research 
in every department of the physical realm. In the face of 
our marvelous triumphs over material forces, it warns 
us of the indubitable fact that man cannot live by bread 
alone, no matter how large and rich the supply. It lifts 
the most prosaic, earthy science into the higher realm 
of the spirit. It bids us educate men as men, and not as 
clever brutes. 

The religious spirit is something very deep and subtle. 
It escapes the confines men build for it, and in places 
where it is unauthorized, unrecognized, perhaps un- 
bidden, finds a more congenial home. Religion has not 
lost its power in American education. The sincere love 
of truth, whatever the truth may be, is more religious 
than the resolution to propagate a fixed and determined 
system of truth. The free service of all the people, with- 
out sectarian interest, is more godly than partisan ser- 
vice of a portion of the people. The lifting of the life 
of a commonwealth is assuredly not less pious than the 
endeavor to provide oflficers for a particular organiza- 
tion in that commonwealth. We are delivered in these 
times from the narrow, ecclesiastical zeal of the found- 
ers of American education, but the deeper, broader 
religious feeling, which accompanied that zeal and sanc- 
tified it, and which has its life and its assurance of per- 
manence in our verynature as men, still commands and 
dictates an education broad in scope, large in spirit, and 
directed to the cultivation of the spirit that is in man 
and the life which he shares with God. 

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The Presiding Officer then introduced as the final 
speaker the Rt. Rev. James De Wolf Perry, D.D., 
Bishop of the Diocese of Rhode Island in the Protestant 
Episcopal Church, the subject of whose address was 
"Religious Education in the Modern College." 

IF we accept the statement that life is measured by 
ideas, not years, the lapse of time since the begin- 
nings of our New England colleges may well be gauged 
by changing conceptions of rehgious education. The 
founders of Harvard College, as already quoted, de- 
clared that, after establishing homes, meeting-houses, 
and a government, "one of the next things we longed 
for and looked after was to advance Learning and per- 
petuate it to Posterity, dreading to leave an illiterate 
Ministry to the churches." The early records of Yale 
College and of Brown University reflect the same pur- 
pose to provide for an educated Christian ministry. 

These fathers of American universities may be justly 
charged with a restricted outlook upon the whole field 
of opportunity. The wealth of technical courses in the 
modern curriculum would have baffled them more hope- 
lessly than it bewilders even the fastidious freshman of 
to-day. They had not the extensive view of education 
which we boast. They had, however, the power to rec- 
ognize and adopt the fundamental principle that higher 
learning was misnamed if it had not its origin in the 
spiritual faculties of men, and that the search for truth 
was doomed to failure until the quest was followed into 
the presence of God as revealed in the person of Jesus 
Christ. The Christian ministry was the acknowledged 
agency through which this academic ideal was to be 
realized. But the object in view was not professional. It 

c no :\ 



Religious History of the University- 
contemplated the wide intellectual and spiritual culture 
for which the word" university "hadalways stood. View 
the lists of early graduates from Brown University, 
preeminent among them all the family from which the 
University has its noblest traditions and its name. There 
is no need in this presence to enumerate them nor to 
describe the service that they rendered. They were not 
all enrolled in the Church's ordained ministry, but in 
their respective callings, military, legal, and ecclesi- 
astical, they fulfilled the religious purpose written in 
the charter of their Alma Mater, by bequeathing to the 
state, the nation, and the world the rich fruits of a Chris- 
tian education. 

We cannot claim for these pioneers of education in 
America, for they explicitly denied the claim, that the 
religious function of the college had achieved perfec- 
tion in their hands. It was their part to perceive in right 
proportions the task committed to them, and to leave 
to future generations the solution of the problem. It is 
ours to labor in the light of their example and to gauge 
our efforts by their high ideals. Our boasted progress 
of material and intellectual achievement in scholastic 
institutions can prove its value only when brought to 
judgment before the spiritual standards once by them 
upheld. 

Here is a sacred inheritance to which, like every 
other, we are responsible but not enslaved. In the light 
of it we are to examine the field of religious education 
in the modern college and learn, if we may, where 
lost ground may be regained and new opportunity dis- 
covered. One valuable lesson has been learned from 
costly experience. It is well that we should accept it as 
a premise and thus guard ourselves against the repeti- 

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tion of a traditional mistake. The problem in hand can- 
not be solved by formulating abstract propositions and 
fitting them perforce into a scheme of education. 

To determine what hypothetical system should ap- 
ply to a hypothetical youth, or even to expand our finely 
wrought ideals before the student's eyes, with the hope 
of winning his approval and enthusiasm, must inevita- 
bly result in waste of time and loss of his respect. The 
literal significance of the word " education " as the de- 
velopment of latent faculties is not surrendered, but 
rather emphasized twofold, when the process is related 
to the soul. Therefore, to save our subject both from 
vagueness and arbitrary treatment, let us translate the 
question from theoretical to purely practical terms and 
consider the problem of religious education as it con- 
fronts us in the person of that very real but complex 
being, the candidate for a college course. 

We will agree that the most difficult of college stud- 
ies is the student. We must not now attempt to analyze 
him, but may consider certain conditions, three notably, 
which explain his spiritual attitude. To understand them 
is to understand his need and the opportunity of reli- 
gious education in the university. He comes, this seeker 
for the truth ( except in rare abnormal instances which 
need not be considered), with a point of view already 
more or less defined. However this has been acquired, 
whether from his home or school or church, it describes 
the angle of his spiritual outlook. The chances are that 
it is unintelligent. Almost certainly it has been gained 
through prejudice and incomplete experience. In any 
case, this point of view is the point of contact between 
the soul and God. Moreover, it marks the ground for 
an existing fellowship of those who share with him a 

C 112 ] 



Religious History of the University 

similar religious experience and usage. Since the word 
"denomination" conveys in popular language the idea 
of this specialized religious thought, we may accept it 
for the sake of understanding. But the actual fact of par- 
ticular spiritual inheritance and training is larger than 
the term, and with that we are concerned. Now, the 
tendency in the religious life of our colleges for many 
years has been to rid the mind of all predispositions in 
order that the student might reach his own conclusions 
without bias, and that the student body might find com- 
mon ground for faith and worship. 

This experiment of undenominational Christianity 
found favor in the universities of England and all parts 
of America until the inevitable result was manifest: that 
the foundations of traditional faith and practice had been 
taken from the young man at the critical period of his 
development, in order that he might stand with others 
on ground acceptable to all. This agreement is reached 
on the terms of an irreducible minimum of religion. The 
fact is, that the spiritual emotion common to a whole 
community of college men is not, in any accurate sense, 
religion. An ambition for social service, an indulgence 
of the instinct of fellowship, and even splendid ethical 
ideals, which constitute the religious programme of 
many colleges, may offer effective and stimulating ex- 
ercises for the moral and the social sense, but they are 
inadequate as substitutes for genuine religious training. 
They will not of themselves satisfy the normal craving 
of the human heart for God. Neither in college nor in 
after life can the heights of inspiration be attained along 
the levels of compromise. The only genuine incorpo- 
ration of spiritual ideals will have been realized when 
right of way and encouragement shall be given to the 

C 113 H 



Brown University 

traditional faith and affiliations of the individual student 
and of every church. This is the plan of interdenomi- 
national as opposed to undenominational Christianity. 
It is clearly enunciated in an official statement of the 
Christian Student Movement in Great Britain which, 
to quote the words of the report, "is interdenomina- 
tional in that, while it unites persons of different reli- 
gious denominations in a single organization, it recog- 
nizes their allegiance to any of the various Christian 
bodies in which the body of Christ is divided. It be- 
lieves that loyalty to their own denomination is the first 
duty of Christian students. Thus the movement is in 
a position to have its life enriched, while its members 
bring as their contribution all the truth for which their 
own denomination stands." 

Such ideals of religious life and education find elo- 
quent expression in the beginnings of Rhode Island and 
Brown University. When Roger Williams marked the 
boundaries of Providence Plantations from the rest of 
New England, he was providing a citadel not prima- 
rily for the refuge of one sect, but for the freedom of 
individual rehgious conviction. When, later. Manning, 
Jenckes, Brown, and others resisted the attempt to 
force the new college in Rhode Island into conformity 
with the Congregational hierarchy of Connecticut and 
the Puritan despotism of Massachusetts, the citadel was 
saved, and the right of denominational freedom in the 
domain of American education was assured. 

I am speaking now of something far more vital than 
questions of polity and ecclesiastical privilege. Here is 
involved the essential condition of loyalty which stands 
with liberty as one of the two foundations of all sound 
religion. Unless the growing man finds truth in what- 

i 114 ] 



Religious History of the University 

ever field it may be sought, embodied in some cause 
commanding his allegiance and self-sacrifice, the quest 
of truth sinks to the plane of an idle pastime. By the 
same token, unless the search for God inspires loyal 
devotion to an institution symbolic of His presence and 
consecrated to His purposes, the thought of God be- 
comes a mere negation. 

The need for a conserving influence will suggest the 
second fact which may be postulated of the average 
student. He enters college at the age of spiritual read- 
justment. This means more than the process of recon- 
structing the content of belief. It means a complete 
change in the relations between his faculties of percep- 
tion and volition, of information and spiritual vision. The 
teacher's opportunity of unfolding to the mind at that 
critical period a new world of knowledge leaves wide 
room for the temptation to exploit the intellect for 
the suppression rather than the reasonable exercise of 
faith. It must be confessed in all honesty that our uni- 
versities have not mightily resisted this temptation. On 
the contrary, there has been a universal passion for 
experiment in spiritual vacuums. The result has been a 
distortion of the normal functions of the human facul- 
ties. The intellect divorced from the higher conscious- 
ness is left in the false position of supremacy, making 
the acquisition and analysis of facts the chief end of 
learning; while religion deprived of the disciplining 
power of the mind is relegated to the domain of feel- 
ing. In order that fair judgment may be passed upon this 
question, there must be remembered the aim of all edu- 
cation. It is the proportionate cultivation of the powers 
which enable man to live the best and fullest life. To 
this end information is insuflScient without deep con- 
C 115 ] 



Brown University 

viction. Unless education is to become debased to thinly 
disguised materialism, intellectual development must 
be controlled by a faith that has been grounded on 
intelligent and permanent foundations. 

On one of the great avenues of New York City the 
multitudes who come and go have watched for five years 
the erection of a stately church supplanting a temporary 
structure which, while still standing, seemed gradually 
to merge into the great edifice. Month after month the 
congregation gathered in its accustomed place while 
beneath, around, and above them, by imperceptible 
degrees, the foundations and superstructure enveloped 
them with enduring power and increasing beauty. 

Very like this is the process which should mark the 
student's spiritual growth. Without moving him from 
the ground whereon he stands, nor removing from him 
the convictions that he has, the college course gives his 
faith the power to reach down to a surer foundation and 
out to a wider and more splendid vision of the truth. 

The college graduate should have learned to view 
his religious experience in relation to all Christian his- 
tory. He should have traced the streams of spiritual cul- 
ture that enrich his world back to their sources in the 
Old and New Testaments. Above all he should have 
had opportunity to examine his beliefs in the light of 
those conclusions reached through generations of Chris- 
tian scholars and contained in thegreat formulas of faith. 
In this high purpose of a university all the members of 
a faculty have joint responsibility. There must be oppor- 
tunity of course for specialization in a well-equipped de- 
partment. But religious education in its largest sense is 
not confined to this. To be genuine and effective, it must 
describe the prevailing attitude of the whole teaching 
[ 116 ] 



Religious History of the University 

staff and the spirit pervading lecture room, seminar, and 
laboratory. I have known the spiritual tone of one uni- 
versity to be secured by the influence of a professor of 
mathematics as effectively as I have seen it elsewhere 
combated, if not defeated, by the adroit mind of one 
professor of political economy. Here is the key to the 
problem. The ideal of Christian education will not be 
realized by new systems of instruction. These will come 
in the wake of the movement. Neither will it be secured 
by restatements of doctrine. These will take form as 
the truth becomes perceived. The training of intelligent 
and loyal Christians will be accomphshed under the 
leadership of believing men, whose teaching and exam- 
ple reflect their faith and kindle conviction in the minds 
of others. 

One final step remains, transcending every other in 
importance. Faith is, indeed, as we have found, the test 
of spiritual culture. But faith, in its last analysis, is not 
to be confined to the acceptance of a creed, however 
vital and reasonableone's belief. Faith is "the convinced 
consciousness of a life lived in the atmosphere of God," 
and as such it finds its origin, its discipline, and its full 
expression in the act of worship. To this conception of 
religion the mental processes and habits of the student 
normally incline. Whatever be his intellectual proclivi- 
ties, and in whatever subject he may be engaged, his 
personal relation to the truth tends to make of him the 
mystic rather than the skeptic. He moves and thinks 
in the presence of the great mysteries of life. The rev- 
erent attitude he owes to them demands in all consis- 
tency a reverent approach to God. The cultivation of 
that spirit of devotion is a vital factor in all complete 
religious education. When this fact is given its full 

c 117:1 



Brown University 

import, chapel services, voluntary prayers, and all the 
other opportunities for worship will be designed to 
stimulate his spiritual powers, not to indulge them. The 
serious effects of carelessness and lethargy in the char- 
acter of worship will be as clearly recognized as an 
equal laxity in scientific and literary pursuits. The soul, 
no less than the mind, develops under discipline from 
exercise that requires honest effort and commands re- 
spect. 

For the new era of faith that begins to dawn upon 
the darkness now engulfing us, the universities owe 
to the world leaders and not laggards in religious 
thought and life: men of courage, who have examined 
the ground of their belief and can stand as champions 
of the truth ; men of conviction, whose loyalty rests on 
sure foundations; men of reverence, whose learning 
has led them into the conscious presence of God. 



C 118 3 



The Celebration Play 

A Celebration Play was presented at the Provi- 
dence Opera House on Monday evening, twelfth 
October, under the general direction of Professor 
Thomas Crosby, Jr., Associate Professor of English 
and Public Speaking. The performance consisted of the 
play" The Provoked Husband," by John Vanbrugh and 
Colley Cibber, and an inclosing play entitled " In Col- 
ony Times," by Albert Ellsworth Thomas, '94, and 
Henry Ames Barker, '93. Mr. Barker directed and pro- 
duced " In Colony Times," and designed the scenery 
for the production. The casts of the two plays were 
made up in greater part from the membership of the 
two dramatic societies in the University, the " Sock and 
Buskin" and the "Komians," and from " The Players' 
Club," of Providence. 

"The Provoked Husband, or a Journey to London" 
was produced in Newport in 1 761 by a company under 
the direction of David Douglas, and was said to be 
the first play performed in New England by profes- 
sional actors. " In Colony Times" essayed to depict the 
conflict over theatrical performances which raged in 
Rhode Island at about the time of the founding of the 
University, a conflict resulting in a statute which ef- 
fectively barred play-acting in colony and state for a 
long period. Mr. Douglas and his company, according 
to tradition, came to Providence in the summer of 1 762, 
and the setting of the first act presented a part of the 
Providence of that day, reproduced with considerable 
fidelity, for many of the buildings shown were accu- 
rately located by the study of maps and histories of the 

C 119 n 



Brown University 

times. The second act showed the interiorof the theatre, 
called the "Histrionic Academy," and adapted from a 
cow-barn, with hay-mows turned into stage-boxes, and 
rude benches installed in the pit, and all occupied by 
spectators with varying interests. On the smaller stage, 
set back from the proscenium arch of the real theatre, 
was presented " The Provoked Husband."" In Colony 
Times" was made up of both fact and fancy. John 
Brown's connection with the incidents depicted is said to 
be a matter of record. The Reverend Sepulchre White 
may well have had his prototype. Dramatic critics have 
expressed approval of the play within a play, portray- 
ing as it did, a little in the fashion of the old chronicle- 
histories, the times, the place, and the men and women 
of a century and a half ago. 

The cast of " In Colony Times " was as follows : 



The Reverend Sepulchre White, of the Newlight 

Church of Providence 
Barzhjai Graves 



Citizens of Providence 
opposed to the intro- 
duction of Stage Plays 



Charles C. Remington 
Albert B. Johnson 
Stephen Waterman 
Lawrence H. Rich 
Edward C. Bixby 
Alonzo Williams 
Marshall B. Martin 
Henry A. Barker 
G. Denny Moore 



EusHA Richmond 

Samuel Jenks 

Edward Winsor 

Daniel Mitchell 

Tom Perkins, the Town Crier 

Paul Tew, High Sheriff of Providence County 

Hon. John Arnold, a colonial legislator 

Mr. Morris, a member of Mr. Douglas's Company Adams T. Rice 

Captain Esek Hopkins \ ("John Sweetland 

Nicholas Brown \ Associates in business I -vv. R. Burwell 

Joseph Brown | "'I'' -^ " -' | Paul Matteson 

drama . „ „ ,. , 

Moses Brown I I Wilham C. Crolms, Jr. 

John Brown, of Nicholas Brown & Co. , Merchants 

and Ship- Owners of Providence Melvin Sawin 

David Douglas, an eminent English actor, a 
friend and former associate of David Garrick Thomas Crosby, Jr. 



[ 120 ^ 



The Celebration Play- 



Miss Lucy Hallam, daughter of the late Lewis 
Hallam, Esq., step-daughter of Mr. Douglas 
and a member of his company 

Roger McVickar, a young planter from South 
Cou7ity, but recently returned from a trip to 
Virginia 

Hon. Stephen Hopkins, recently Governor of 
Rhode Island 

Captain Abraham Whipple, a bold privateers- 
man, Master of the'''' Charming Polly" 

Isaiah Dobbins 

Silas Benson , 

Mrs. Benson J 

The Ticket Man "| 

The Usher ( 



Miss Sarah E. Minchen 



William Farnsworth 



John Murdock 



}At the "'Histrionic 
Academy ' ' 
Sam, negro slave at Mr. Merritt's 
Jim, negro slave at Governor Hopkins's 
Mr. Rollins 

Mrs. Rollins [ Visitors come from 

Mr. J. QuiNCY 
Mrs. J. QuiNCY 

Mrs. Mehitabel Perkins, the Town Crier's Wife 
John Merritt 
Mrs. Merritt 
Miss Merritt 
Mrs. Stephen Hopkins ] 

Mrs. EsEK Hopkins | Members of another 

Mrs. Abraham Whipple j ' ' Box Party ' ' 
Miss Mary Brown I 

Ephraim Whitman, a spectator 



Franklin E. Edgecomb 
1 /"J. Lanson Eddy 

y Spectators at the Play < Russell M. Wilson 
iMiss Laura Webster 
[Royal Leith 
\Raymer Weeden 
Donald Jackson 
Arthur H. Shepard 

{Thomas B. Appleget 
Miss Madeleine Johnson 
Clarence C. Maxson 
Miss Margaret Morgan 
Mre. Daniel Webster 

fJ. Palmer Bai-stow 
Miss Alice Appleton 
Miss Margaret Corey 
Mrs. John Murdock 
Miss Agnes Brown 
Mrs. L. H. Meader 
Miss Edna Solinger 
Charles H. Hunkins 
Chauncey Langdon 



Boston to see a real 
play 



A ' ' Box Party ' ' 



Messenger yroOT the Colony House 

Friends and followers of the Brown-Hopkins faction. Citizens opposed 
to Stage Plays, Members of the Colonial Assembly, Sailors, Candlemakers, 
etc. 

Other Spectators at the Play, Citizens, etc. : Miss M. Appleton, Miss Louise 
Keach, Mre. A. B. Johnson, Miss Anne Taylor, L. H. Meader, Walter Hay- 
ward, Everard Appleton, Robert Hamilton, F. Webster Cook, Henry F. 
Drake, Paul Keough. 

The cast of "The Provoked Husband," together 
with the cast ( in parentheses ) of the original company 



Brown University 
of Mr. Douglas, "in the order of their appearance," 



was as follows: 

Lord Townly 

Lady Townly 

Williams 

Lady Grace 

Mr. Manly 

John Moody 

Mrs. Motherly 

Count Basset 

Myrtilla 

Lady Wronghead 

Sir Francis Wronghead {Mr. Quelch) 

'Squire Richard {Master A. Hallam) 

Miss Jenny {Miss Lucy Hallam) 

Mrs. Trusty {Mrs. Tremaine) 

Constable {Mr. Sturi) 



{Mr. LeivisHallam,'2d) 

{Mrs. Morris) 

{Mr. Seed) 

{Mrs. David Douglas) 

{Mr. David Douglas) 

{Mr. Morris) 

{Mrs. Mlyn) 

{Mr. miyri) 

{Mrs. Moore) 

{Mrs. Crane) 



Chester T. Calder 
Mrs. Guy Strickler 
Harold Jackson 
Mrs. Royal Leith 
Thomas Crosby, Jr. 
Frank Brady 
Miss Maud Famum 
Robert T. Burbank 
Mrs. Dexter Knight 
Miss Helen Gindele 
Robert B. Jones 
Paul B. Howland 
Miss Sarah E. Minchen 
Miss Maud Tucker 
George La Roe 



The Play- Bill concluded as follows: 

Time: August 25, 1762. Place: The Village of Providence in New England. 

Scenes 
Act I. Benefit Street, near the head of Gaol Ijane. The recently completed Colony 
House appears on the right. Mr. Douglas's "Histrionic Academy," lately trans- 
formed from the Percivals' former cow-bam, is diagonally across the road. The 
vacant slope of Prospect Hill rises above the "Academy." The VUlage extends 
along the valley, and Weybosset Point is seen in the distance across the broad 
waters of the Great Salt River. Late afternoon. 

Acts II and III. (Inclosing the Play of The Provoked Husband.) The inte- 
rior of the ' ' HistrionicAcademy . ' ' The boxes and galleries made from the former 
hay-mows. The stage front constructed of scenery brought from Virginia. On 
the stage during the performance of ' ' Tlie Provoked Husband ' ' the scenes are 
as follows: Acts i, la, and v. At Lord Townly's. Acts u and iv. At Mrs. 
Motherly's. In Act v, curtain is dropped to indicate a lapse of time. 

Stage Director, Henry A. Barker. Stage Manager, Adams T. Rice. Special 
scenery, from designs and scale models by Henry A. Barker, is painted by Charles 
G. Holzapfel and constructed by Henry W. Lester. Other scenery, hghting 
eifects, etc., from "Tlie Players' Club." Properties by Mr. and Mrs. Daniel 
Webster. 

Historical notes, appended to the Play-Bill, were in 
substance as follows : 



The Celebration Play- 



David Douglas was a gentleman by birth and fortune, who emigrated to 
Jamaica about the year 1 750. Hither Lewis Hallam brought a company of 
comedians aftera failure in the American colonies. Here Douglas joined him, 
and after the death of Hallam, married his widow. With her and the rest of 
the company, he visited the colonies in 1758, where they continued to act 
until the theatres were closed in 1774. Thereafter he returned to Jamaica, 
was appointed one of the King's judges, and died universally respected. Mrs. 
Douglas, who had been a leading actress in London when Mrs. Hallam, came 
with her husband to Virginia in 1752 and made her dfibut at Williamsburg 
as Portia in the " Merchant of Venice." She was much admired, and Mr. 
Dunlap in his ' ' History of the American Stage ' ' says that in his youth he had 
heard old ladies of Perth Amboy speak almost in raptures of her beauty and 
grace, and especially of the pathos of her representation of Jane Shore. She 
retired from the stage in 1 769, and died in Philadelphia in 1 773 . Mr. Hallam, 
the 2d, made his first appearance upon any stage on the night of the first 
performance of his father's company in America, when twelve years old. He 
had but one line to speak, was panic-struck, and retired in tears. He after- 
wards became an accomplished actor, and in 1767 he was leading man in 
the company. After the Revolution he was a manager in most of the theatres 
of the country. Mr. Morris played the "Old Men" parts. In 1797, being the 
oldest actor on the American stage, he was still upon the boards, and at that 
time communicated to Mr. John Barnard the particulars of the introduction 
of the drama into the New World. The other performers in Mr. Douglas's 
company included Messrs. Allyn, Quelch,Tomlinson, Sturt, Reed, and Tre- 
maine, Master A. Hallam, Mesdames Morris, Crane, Allyn, Moore, and 
Miss Hallam ; all "selected for their talents and moral worth, and their be- 
haviour justified their reputation." It is believed that this venture of the 
Douglas company in Rhode Island was the only appearance of a professional 
company in New England until 1792, when theatres were opened contrary 
to law, but wdth the backing of public approval in both Boston and Provi- 
dence. The Newport ' ' Mercury ' ' said of Mr. Douglas and his company : " It 
ought in justice to be told that the work of these players has been irreproach- 
able ; and with regard to their skill the universal pleasure and satisfaction they 
have given is their best and most honourable testimony. The character they 
brought from the Governor and Gentlemen of Virginia has been fully veri- 
fied, and therefore we run no risk in pronouncing that ' they are capable of 
entertaining a sensible and polite audience.' " 

Dr. Johnson, according to Boswell, said of Cioldsmith's comedy, the 
" Good-Natured Man," produced in 1768, that it was the best comedy that 
had appeared since Colley Gibber produced ' ' The Provoked Husband ' ' some 
forty yeare before. 

A "Notice Extraordinary" in the shape of a hand- 
le 123 ] 



Brown University 

bill, purporting to be a copy of the original announce- 
ment of "The Provoked Husband," and printed in 
archaic form, was distributed among the audience and 
gave an air of verisimilitude to the performance. This 
announcement set forth that 

"Mr. David Douglas, late of London^ most humbly desires to make the 
following announcement to the Ladies and Gentlemen of the Town of Provi- 
dence ! At the Magnificent Institution kno^vn as the PRovmENCE Histrionic 
Academy (lately fitted up for this especial purpose on Benefit Street at the 
head of Gaol Lane) will be sho^vn on Monday, August 25, 1 762, A Moral 
Dialogue Portraying the Evils of Unbridled Ambition that is not Supported 
by Moral Purpose, and the Unfortunate Results of Wifely Disobedience of 
a Wise and Indulgent Spouse. The Whole Composed and Written for the 
Improvement of Morals and Benefit of Family Life by Sir J. Van Brugh 
and C. Gibber, Esq. and Humbly Portrayed for the Edification of the People 
of New England, by a Worthy Company of Ladies and Gentlemen from 
England, who have Performed the Same in London by Favour ot His Royal 
Highness King George the Third and have but lately arrived from Virginia, 
where they have repeated it many times with the Esteemed Patronage of the 
Governor and Most Enlightened Residents of that Colony." 

Then followed the "Title of this Useful Dialogue," 
and the cast, with descriptions of the characters and 
a poetical tag to each. A " Further Announcement" of 
further like entertainments, etc., concluded thus: 

" N . B . Complaints having been made that a number of Gentlemen crowd 
the stage and very much interrupt the performances, and as it is impossible 
the company should do that justice to their parts they otherwise would, it 
will be taken as a particular favour if the Gentlemen give us the entire use 
of the stage. D. Douglas." 

This "Notice Extraordinary" bore the legend, 
"Printed by Wm. Goddard, at his New Printing Shop 
in Gaol Lane, above Tovsaie Street in Providence." An 
historical note on the play-bill stated that "The first 
printing press established in Providence was that of 
William Goddard in Gaol Lane in the summer of 1 762, 
and its first productions are stated to have been the 
play-bills of the Douglas Company." 

C 124 j 



The Celebration Play 

The audience at this, the initial performance, was 
composed chiefly of members of the University and of 
guests of the University in Providence and vicinity. A 
second performance was given on October 13, for the 
alumni of the University ; and a third on October 14, for 
delegates and invited guests from without the city and 
their hosts and hostesses. 



c 125 n 



The Early Years of 
Brown University 

ON Tuesday, thirteenth October, at half after three 
o'clock in the afternoon, anniversary exercises, 
at which President Faunce presided, were held in the 
First Baptist Church at Warren, Rhode Island, in rec- 
ognition of the temporary location ( 1 764-1 770 ) in that 
town of the University at its foundation. The order of 
exercises was as follows : An organ recital was given 
by Miss Frances S.Burnham, the organist of the church, 
followed by the singing by the church choir of the 
anthem, by Dudley Buck," We Praise Thee, O Lord." 
Prayer was offered by the Rev. Charles Hubbard Spal- 
ding, D.D., of the class of 1 865. A selection on the violin 
was then rendered by Miss Ella Beatrice Ball. The Rev. 
Herman W. Watjen, D.D., the pastor of the church, 
in an address of welcome, said : 

WE are exceedingly glad to-day that Brown Uni- 
versity had its beginning in Warren. It is true 
that the church did not originate the college, nor did the 
college establish the church; both were independent 
conceptions and each would have been realized in due 
time, the church here and the college somewhere, for 
the necessity of a school for the higher branches of edu- 
cation that should be free from ecclesiastical interfer- 
ence was keenly felt by our Baptist forefathers. That 
the college was first established in Warren was due to 
the fact that here conditions were just right: the people 
were mostly Baptists, tolerant, magnanimous, and lov- 
ers of an educated ministry, due largely to the influence 
of John Miles and his successors, who had permeated 
I 126 ^ 



Early Years of Brown University 

this section of the country with high scholarly ideals. 
Furthermore, here a church was about to be organized ; 
a site, which is the highest in the town, had been pur- 
chased ( timber for the meeting-house was being cut ) ; 
consequently, when the idea of establishing a college, 
whose president should also be pastor of the church, 
was presented to those about to organize, it was heartily 
received, and Dr. Manning, who had been selected to 
inaugurate this liberal seat of learning, was chosen pas- 
tor of the church in 1 764. It was a sad disappointment 
to the church when, a few years after, it was called 
upon to part with Dr. Manning, who felt it his duty to 
go with the college when it was removed to Providence. 
However, the college soon repaid the church in giving 
to it, as its second pastor, the valedictorian of the first 
class, the Rev. Charles Thompson. From that day to this 
the church has not ceased to take a warm interest in 
the prosperity of the college, and it is with pride that 
we inform visitors to the town that here is the place 
where Brown University had its beginning. We are 
glad, therefore, that we can share in this great celebra- 
tion, and we bid you. President Faunce, Dr. Keen, dele- 
gates, and visitors, a hearty welcome. 

President Faunce made an appropriate response to 
these words of greeting. 

The following address was then delivered on "The 
Early Years of Brown University ( 1764-1770)," by 
William Williams Keen, M.D., LL.D., of the class of 
1859: 

INFANCY always appeals to us. The confiding help- 
lessness of a young life arouses our chivalry. The 
many and constant perils besetting especially its early 

L 127 J , 



Brown University- 
years excite our sympathy. The splendid possibilities 
enwrapped in it kindle our imagination. If we live long 
enough to see its weakness change to strength ; its abili- 
ties develop; its character unfold, and its influence grow 
so that it becomes a power in the land, well may we 
rejoice over the strong man that he is, and review with 
absorbing interest the early days of the child that he 
was. This is my pleasant task to-day — to recount the 
history of the first six years in the life of Brown Uni- 
versity. 

It is peculiarly congenial to me, for in 1 762 the " first 
mover " in the enterprise, as he rightly calls himself, 
was Morgan Edwards, the pastor of my own church, 
the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia. The first stu- 
dent of the University , William Rogers, became pastor 
of my own church, and married my grandparents in 
1788. In 1790 Thomas Ustick, of the third class (1771 ), 
while our pastor, baptized my grandfather. Henry Hol- 
combe, of the class of 1 800 ( hon. ) , while pastor of our 
church , m arried my parents in 1 8 2 3 . William T. Brantly , 
of the class of 1831 (hon.), another pastor of our 
church, baptized my parents in that same year. George 
Dana Boardman,of the class of 1852, and George H. 
Ferris, of the class of 1891, have been my pastors and 
warm personal friends. 

In Brown University I obtained my own education 
and inspiration, for which I owe a debt of gratitude that 
I can never repay. Up College Hill fifty-five years 
ago proudly marched my classmates and I singing our 
"Song of Degrees." Forty-one years ago I was hon- 
ored by an election to the Corporation of the University. 
Since then I have taken part in the election of one hun- 
dred members of the Corporation, including all (forty- 
C 128 J 



Early Years of Brown University 

six ) of the present members of the Corporation, except- 
ing myself and one other, and fifty-four others who have 
all passed away save one, who resigned. I have known 
all its presidents save the first three. Is it any wonder 
that I feel so deeply an hereditary and personal interest 
in this ancient University.'' 

In view of the fact that Professor Bronson's new His- 
tory of the University deals at length with the charter, 
the removal to Providence, and other questions which 
aroused much controversy in their day, and that our 
distinguished alumnus, Mr. Justice Hughes, is to give 
the principal Historical Address, I shall only make allu- 
sions to well-known historical events. My chief endeavor 
will be to set forth the local conditions, manners, and 
customs existing in Warren and Providence from the 
beginning of the University, including 1 770, the date of 
the second commencement. I include this second com- 
mencement, although it was held in Providence, because 
practically all thework of that class was done in Warren. 

I must disarm criticism, and especially from a War- 
ren audience, by disclaiming in advance any desire to 
expose and emphasize the faults and foibles of our pre- 
decessors. But conditions one hundred and fifty years 
ago were very different from those of to-day, and they 
are a necessary frame for the picture. I have drawn a 
similar picture in the Bicentenary History of my own 
Philadelphia church without offense, and I feel sure 
that here, too, I shall find the same friendly forbear- 
ance. The failings which I mention were the faults of 
the times. The individuals were only a few examples 
out of many. I have ventured to introduce an occasional 
touch of humor to lighten what would otherwise be a 
dull recital of mere historical facts. 
[ 129 ^ 



Brown University 

The nascent years of the University were filled with 
the increasing mutterings of political discontent which 
soon found expression in the Revolutionary War, and 
each recurring semi-centenary, strange to say, has been 
similarly marked by war. Our first, in 1814, occurred 
before the end of the War of 1812; in 1864, the full 
century took place during the bloody crisis of the Civil 
War. In both these emergencies Brown loyally bore its 
part. In 1914, at our third half-century, peace in Mexico 
is still trembling in the balance, and war has "raised its 
horrid front" in Europe in more terrible form than ever 
before in history. Thank God that the healing wounds 
of my own guild are for the saving of human lives and 
not for their destruction. 

Chronologically Brown ranks the seventh of the nine 
colleges established prior to the Revolution, viz. : 

1. Harvard University 

2. College of William and Mary 

3. Yale University 

4. University of Pennsylvania 

5. Princeton University 

6. Columbia University 

7. Brown University 

8. Rutgers College 

9. Dartmouth College 

Morgan Edwards, pastor of the First Baptist Church 
of Philadelphia, the "first mover" in the matter, was 
born in Wales in 1722. He was "bred a Churchman," 
but became a Baptist in 1738. He reached Philadelphia 
May 23,1 761 . He was one of those men whose arrival 
anywhere meant that the "wheels began to go round," 
and things began to be done. In our own church he 
started the "Minute Book" in his copperplate hand- 

C 130 ] 



1636 


Congregational 


1692 


Episcopalian 


1701 


Congregational 


1740 


Episcopalian 


1746 


Presbyterian 


1754 


Episcopalian 


1764 


Chiefly Baptist 


1766 


Dutch Reformed 


1769 


Episcopalian 



Early Years of Brown University 

writing, and also our " Marriage Book/'which contains 
a complete record of all the marriages by our ministers 
for one hundred and fifty-three years. He was very 
influential in the Philadelphia Baptist Association and 
other church activities. When moderator of the Associa- 
tion he was not only the first to propose, in 1762, the 
founding of a college, but later was active in obtaining 
the charter ; procured more funds for the college when 
it sorely needed them than any one else; served on 
the original Board of Fellows for twenty-five years; 
and preached at the first commencement ( 1769). He 
published " Materials towards a History of the Ameri- 
can Baptists," four volumes of a series of twelve, pro- 
jected but never completed. 

Most fitting is it, therefore, that our Philadelphia 
alumni will honor his name by establishing the " Mor- 
gan Edwards Fellowship" by a gift of over $10,000 
on this the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the 
University which owes its birth to him. 

Like all the early American colleges. Brown arose 
especially from the need and the desire for an educated 
ministry. In England, out of two hundred Baptist min- 
isters only thirty or forty could read the Greek Tes- 
tament, and only seven or eight in America were hb- 
erally educated. Among those were Morgan Edwards 
and James Manning. The mass of the Baptists were in- 
different or hostile to ministerial education. "The Bap- 
tists of the Philadelphia Association had long since taken 
the lead in all that pertained to the elevation of the 
character and dignity of the denomination, and their in- 
fluence had been profoundly felt in New England and 
the South." As early as 1 722 Rev. Abel Morgan, in that 
Association, was the leader in a movement for an acad- 

C 131 ] 



Brown University 

emy — a proposal that failed owing to Morgan's death. 
In 1 756 the Association founded the academy at Hope- 
well, New Jersey. James Manning, Hezekiah Smith, 
Samuel Stillman, Samuel Jones, and John Gano, all so 
actively identified with the founding of Brown ; David 
Howell, the second professor at Brown; and Charles 
Thompson and William Winiams,of the first graduat- 
ing class, were all educated at Hopewell Academy. 

In 1 762 there were but sixty Baptist churches and 
only five thousand members in all the colonies. In 1 770, 
in Rhode Island, the books used in the schools were the 
Bible, the spelling book, and the primer. "When one 
had learned to read, write, and do a sum in the rule 
of three he was fit for business." So vague and naive 
was the knowledge of geography that Rhode Island 
was once described as located "in the West Indies in 
America." The minister especially needed to be edu- 
cated, for he was by far the foremost man in the com- 
munity ; the doctor and the lawyer, his near neighbors, 
yielding him the pas. 

The meticulous exactness of theological belief Y^nch. 
was then deemed a test of orthodoxy is shown, for ex- 
ample, in a circular letter preserved among the archives 
of the First Baptist Church in Philadelphia, which be- 
gins thus: 

" The Church of Christ meeting in Upperfreehold, in 
the County of Monmouth, New Jersey. Holding Eter- 
nal Election, perticular Redemption, Irresistable grace 
in Efi^ectual Calling, and final perseverance in grace, 
( also the Baptism of professing Believers only, by Im- 
mersion only,)" etc. 

It is curious that "the baptism of professing be- 
lievers only" and the method "by immersion only" 

C 132 ;] 



Early Years of Brown University 

seem, by their parenthetical position, to be quite sub- 
ordinate to the other theological dogmas announced in 
this paragraph. On the other hand, orthodox conduct 
was less common. Tustin notes the painful fact that in 
the first eighty years of the life of the Warren church 
ten per cent of the whole membership had been per- 
manently excluded. In the History of my own church 
( 1698-1898 ) I also noted the large number of exclu- 
sions of both men and women for drunkenness, pro- 
fanity, and immorality. In Warren, in 1 769, to curb pro- 
fanity and other evil practices, the town ordered two 
pillories, one of which at least was set up on the side- 
walk, so that no one could miss seeing it and its occu- 
pant. 

Conditions were very primitive. In 1 775 there were 
only thirty-seven newspapers in the whole country: 
fourteen in New England, four in New York, nine in 
Pennsylvania, leaving only ten for all the other colo- 
nies. Women still rode on pillions. Letters were often 
sent by hand even after the post-office passed into 
Franklin's charge ; they were " to be left at Mr. West- 
cott's," or " care of John Holmes at the Sign of George 
Washington," a tavern, for the recipient. It was so well 
known that the post-riders read the letters that, for a 
long time after the Revolution, letters were often writ- 
ten in cipher. 

When Morgan Edwards first proposed a college he 
was laughed at as a visionary, but after the college was 
actually started, the Philadelphia Association, in 1 764, 
1774, and 1782 warmly recommended it to the sup- 
port of the Baptist churches. They appealed not only 
to Baptists, but " to all the friends of literature in every 
denomination." 

n 133 D 



Brown University 

Moreover, the Association aided early Philadelphia 
students. In 1 767 a Mrs. Hobbs left a legacy of £350 
to the Association, and immediately the Association 
directed that ^14 should be paid toward the educa- 
tion of Charles Thompson, of the class of 1 769, the sec- 
ond pastor of the Warren church. Usually ( 1 767, 1 769, 
1771, 1773) the grant was made on condition that 
the beneficiary give a frank, but unusual, bond "to re- 
turn the money in case the Association should be dis- 
appointed in him ! " In 1 769 the sum of ^14 was voted 
for Thomas Ustick, of the class of 1 771 . The next year 
application was made by both Ustick and Vanhorn, but 
Vanhorn was preferred. 

After carefully weighing the desirability of various 
colonies, especially South Carolina and Rhode Island, 
as a location for the proposed college, the latter was se- 
lected on account of the absolute liberty of conscience 
which obtained there, and of the large proportion of 
Baptists in the colony and in its government. 

The charter was not obtained "in February, 1764," 
as is often stated. The General Assembly, it is true, met 
by adjournment in East Greenwich upon "the last 
Monday of February, 1 764," but the charter passed the 
lower house on March 2, the upper house on March 
3, 1764, and was ordered to be signed, sealed, and 
registered. The governor did not actually sign it until 
October 24, 1 765. Meantime, however, the Corporation 
met in Newport on September 5, 1764, and again on 
September 4, 1765. On this date (before the governor 
had actually signed the charter ) the President had been 
elected, and a Faculty, consisting solely of the Presi- 
dent, had been chosen to guide the student body which 
had already existed for twenty-four hours in the person 

C 134 n 



Early Years of Brown University 

of William Rogers, a boy fourteen years of age. The 
President was James Manning, who had graduated at 
Princeton three years before ( 1 762 ) , and was not yet 
twenty-seven years of age. 

The fundamental liberality of the charter, which, 
though written in the middle of the eighteenth century, 
breathes the spirit of the twentieth, is shown in a num- 
ber of its provisions: ( 1 ) The inclusion of four denomi- 
nations, instead of making the Corporation consist only 
of Baptists. The prescribing of the exact n umber allotted 
to each denomination was evidently intended not only 
to prevent the non-Baptists from ousting the Baptists, 
but also to prevent any effort of the Baptists to oust the 
non-Baptists, either of which might easily have been 
feared in that age of bitter sectarianism. ( 2 ) By what 
is quite as striking, the opening of the positions of all 
grades of teachers, with the sole exception of the Presi- 
dent, to all denominations, and the absolute and total 
exclusion of any religious test. ( 3 ) By what, as Pro- 
fessor Bronson has pointed out, is an especially marked 
peculiarity of Brown, the exclusion from the courses 
of public instruction of all teaching of "sectarian dif- 
ferences of opinion," and that "youth of all religious 
denominations" shall be on an equal footing in every 
respect. 

Specific instances showing how Brown lived up to 
these fine promises are most instructive. September 6, 
1 770, the Corporation voted " that the children of Jews 
may be admitted into this Institution and entirely enjoy 
the freedom of their religion without any constraint or 
imposition whatever." In 1774 the Seventh Day Bap- 
tists were exempted from the law requiring attendance 
at church on Sunday. The Quakers were also exempted 

c 135 ;] 



Brown University 

from the law which prohibited the students from wear- 
ing their hats within the college walls. 

In 1769 the Faculty was enlarged by the addition 
of David Howell (already for three years a tutor) 
as " Professor of Natural Philosophy." He taught until 
the war closed the college. The third member of the 
Faculty was Joseph Brown, Howell's successor, who 
resumed the teaching of Natural Philosophy in 1 784, 
shortly after the war ended. The fourth was the cele- 
brated Benjamin Waterhouse, M.D., who taught Nat- 
ural History from 1781 to 1791. 

Waterhouse was a Newport boy, a nephew of Dr. 
John Fothergill, of London, who, as will soon be seen, 
was an early benefactor of the college through Mor- 
gan Edwards. Waterhouse was perhaps the most highly 
educated physician of his day in this country. With 
John Warren and Aaron Dexter he founded the Har- 
vard Medical School in 1 782-83, and was noted as the 
first to introduce vaccination into America. He served 
on the Board of Fellows of Brown for thirteen years 
(1782-95). 

This insistence on Science was in accordance with 
the charter, which decreed that " the public teaching 
shall in general respect thesciences."The scientific sub- 
jects actually taught are not exactly known, but proba- 
bly they differed somewhat, by subtraction, from those 
taught in 1783 (when "science" included geography, 
arithmetic, algebra, Euclid, trigonometry, surveying, 
navigation, and astronomy ), and by addition also, under 
Waterhouse at least. At that time the college spent 
about ^700 "lawful money "on the philosophical appa- 
ratus and the library, one-half of which was given by 
John Brown. Even with this addition, however, the phi- 



Early Years of Brown University 

losophical and astronomical apparatus could hardly 
have been compared with the fine collections at Har- 
vard ( destroyed by fire in 1 764 ) , Yale, and especially 
at William and Mary. 

The first meeting of the Corporation was held on 
Wednesday, September 5, 1764, in Newport. Of the 
forty-seven members of the Corporation named in the 
charter (one place was purposely left vacant for the 
future President), only twenty-eight had qualified. Of 
the twenty-eight, twenty-four were present; certainly 
a very good attendance, especially in view of the then 
difficulties of travel. They were a distinguished com- 
pany, headed by the Chancellor, Hon. Stephen Hop- 
kins, chief justice, governor, member of the Continental 
Congress, and signer of the Declaration of Independ- 
ence. One-fourth were university men: from Harvard 
four, from Yale two, from Princeton one. 

The most urgent need was money to meet immediate 
expenses. Accordingly sixty-nine gentlemen were ap- 
pointed to receive subscriptions, not only in the New 
England colonies, but " in the Western part of this Con- 
tinent." It is curious at this day to find that the "wild 
and woolly West" of 1764 included Baltimore, Phila- 
delphia, and New York. Twenty-three other places 
were specified by name. With prophetic vision, Oyster 
Bay was one. 

Rev. Hezekiah Smith, of Haverhill, collected in 1 769 
about 1 2 500 in the southern colonies, but the largest 
amount was obtained by Morgan Edwards. 

On February 2, 1767, I find the following note in 
the records of our Philadelphia church: " Mr. Edwards 
applied to the Church for leave to go to Europe to exe- 
cute a commission he hath received from the College 

n 137 '] 



Brown University 

in Rhode Island ; he also informed the Church that he 
had wrote to twelve ministers to supply his place in his 
absence, ten of whom had agreed to his proposal; each 
to officiate a month in his turn, and to be allowed each 
five pounds a month out of Mr. Edwards's salary. The 
Church granted Mr. Edwards leave to go to Europe 
and wish him all success." He carried with him a let- 
ter, undated, but evidently written early in 1767, signed 
by the President and the Chancellor. The signature of 
Stephen Hopkins at this date was quite firm. Two years 
later the lines began to waver, and in 1 776, nine years 
before his death, his well-known signature of the Decla- 
ration was extremely tremulous. 

Edwards, as was his wont, lost no time. "Detto, 
Jatto" was his motto. Two weeks after this vote he 
sailed, and in less than two years had collected ^888 
10.?. 9,d. sterling. As he says, he "succeeded pretty well 
considering how angry the Mother country then was 
with the Colonies for opposing the Stamp Act." 

The manuscript list of the subscribers is in our ar- 
chives. The largest subscribers were the First and Sec- 
ond Presbyterian Churches in Belfast (^13 9s. od. and 
=gi4 155. ^d. ). It is interesting to note among the sub- 
scribers Thomas Penn, £9,0, Benjamin Franklin, ^10, 
Thomas Hollis, ^10, Dr. John Fothergill, esteemed by 
all doctors, £,s 5s. The lowest amounts named are one 
and two shillings. 

Encouraged by these collections, the permanent lo- 
cation of the college and the erection of suitable build- 
ings were now actively discussed. After much rivalry 
and not a little hard feeling, the matter was finally set- 
tled. The college and Manning both moved to Provi- 
dence in May, 1770. 

1: 138 3 



Early Years of Brown University 

Why had little Warren ever been selected as the first 
home of the college? 

The town was named after Admiral Sir Peter War- 
ren, who had cleared the coast of French ships of war 
and thus rendered a great service to Warren, which de- 
pended chiefly on its maritime commerce. In 1 746 it had 
been definitely assigned by the King in Council to Rhode 
Island instead of to Massachusetts. Its population even 
in 1 770 was only 979, while Providence had 2958, and 
Newport could boast of 1 1 ,000. Newport was the lead- 
ing town in Rhode Island in commerce and culture as 
well as in inhabitants, was next in size to Boston, and 
had two Baptist churches. 

Swansea was a small inland town about three miles 
from Warren. Here was a Baptist Church, founded for 
over a century ( 1663). The Swansea, the two New- 
port, and the Providence Baptist churches were all sup- 
plied with pastors. In Warren there were about sixty 
Baptists. They were not organized into a church, but 
evidently the desirefor such a churchwas in theirhearts, 
and they had already taken active steps towards found- 
ing it before the plan for a college was first mooted in 
Philadelphia. This intention to found a separate church 
in Warren was doubtless known to the Philadelphia 
Baptists. It was therefore very natural, as the projected 
college had absolutely no funds, that, whatever might 
be its permanent site, it should begin in Warren, where 
the president could be supported by his salary as min- 
ister of the church and also by opening a Latin school. 
The two enterprises — the church and the college — 
went hand in hand. The first step had to do with the 
erection of the meeting-house ; the second and third with 
the college ; the next two with the church ; the sixth with 

C 139 J 



Brown University 

the college ; the seventh with both church and college ; 
the eighth with the college; the ninth to the twelfth with 
the church, and finally the thirteenth with the college. 

The chronological order of events in detail is as fol- 
lows: 

ist. February, 1762. The collection of building ma- 
terials for a " Meeten house" was begun, as shown by 
bills in the archives of the Warren church. This was 
eight months before Morgan Edwards proposed that a 
college should be founded, a year and eight months be- 
fore the first payment on the lot was made, a year and 
nine months before the Warren church was constituted, 
and almost three years before the date of the deed for 
the lot. Surely they were "forehanded." 

2,d. October, 1762. In the Philadelphia Baptist Asso- 
ciation, the only one then in existence, Morgan Ed- 
wards first mooted the question of a college. 

3d. July, 1763. James Manning, representing a com- 
mittee of the Philadelphia Association, visited Newport 
on his way to Halifax, and took the first definite steps 
toward a charter for the proposed college. 

4^A. October 21, 1763. The first payment to the 
"widow Rachel Luen for a Lot of Land for to set 
meten house on." The deed for this lot is dated Janu- 
ary 29, 1765. The lot was not fully paid for until 1783, 
twenty years after the first payment and eighteen years 
after the date of the deed. 

5th. February 17, 1764. "The Congregation" (ob- 
serve it is not "the Church") "at Warren gave Rev. 
James Manning a call to come over from New Jersey 
and settle amongst them." 

6th. March 2 and 3, 1764. The charter of the college 
was granted. 

C 140 ^ 



Early Years of Brown University 

Ith. April 13 or 14, 1764- James and Mrs. Manning 
(they had been married March 23, 1763) arrived at 
Warren. He began at once to preach to the as yet 
unorganized Baptists and also opened a Latin school. 

Sth. September 5, 1764. First meeting of the Corpo- 
ration of the college. 

Qth. September, 1 764. It was agreed to draw up a 
covenant and organize a church. 

10^/2. October 4, 1764. The Swansea church dis- 
missed twenty-five members to the proposed Warren 
church. 

1 1 th. November 15,1 764. The Warren church was 
solemnly constituted with fifty-eight members, all of 
whom assented to the covenant by a rising vote. 

Three of the members then presented a formal call 
from the now organized "Church" to Mr. Manning. 
He accepted, and was at once installed. The provision 
for his salary is naively indefinite: "As we are of opin- 
ion that they who preach the Gospel should live by 
the Gospel we do here declare our intention to render 
your life as happy as possible by our brotherly conduct 
towards you and communicating our temporal things to 
your necessities so long as God . . . shall continue us 
together." Tustin (pp. 121, 122) says that the church 
"appears to have given him a liberal support." 

12^A. November 25, 1764. Manning was dismissed 
from the Scotch Plains church. New Jersey, to the War- 
ren church "of the same faith and order." It should be 
observed, however, that the Scotch Plains church still 
clung to the " Laying on of Hands," whereas the War- 
ren church in its original covenant boldly and expressly 
declared "That the Imposition or Non-Imposition of 
Hands upon believers after Baptism is 7iot essential to 

C 141 n 



Brown University 

Church Communion." This petty controversy was a 
serious bone of contention between the " Five Princi- 
ple "and the " Six Principle "Baptists, and later involved 
Manning and the Providence church in trouble. In the 
Warren records, June 28, 1765, is a charmingly frank 
and very charitable note that Sister R. B. had been" bap- 
tized and come under the Imposition of Hands and has 
since walked circumspectly human frailties excepted." 

13th. September 4, 1765. At the second meeting of 
the Corporation, again held in Newport, James Man- 
ning was formally elected President. 

Both enterprises were now completely organized, 
with James Manning at the head of each. This harmo- 
nious cooperation continued until the question of the 
permanent location of the college arose. For the details 
of this rather violent struggle I must refer you to Pro- 
fessor Bronson's History. Suffice it to say that Provi- 
dence finally won the day, and on May 3, 1 770, Man- 
ning went with the college to Providence. 

Let us now look at a few details of conditions at 
Warren during the period from 1764 to 1770. 

The size of the first meeting-house is variously 
given. In a subscription list of 1 765 it is described as 
" sixty one feat, width forty fore feat. "This would seem 
to be the most reliable. Tustin says it was about forty- 
four feet square, and Guild, following Morgan Ed- 
wards, says it was forty-four by fifty-two feet. It had 
pews, galleries, a turret containing a little bell, called 
the " tobacco bell," as it was paid for by this means, and 
a porch. The pulpit was not built until May, 1 765. The 
" gallories " were not finished nor all the " pues " placed 
possibly until 1774, for on February 3, 1772, a con- 
tract was awarded for finishing the "gallories" and for 

C 143 ] 



Early Years of Brown University 

putting in thirty-six "pues." For doing this work the 
contractors were allowed two years. 

In this contract, and therefore presumably in the ear- 
lier ones, the contractors were given the right to sell 
the pews. On April 24, 17^5, the proprietors of the 
pews, who had believed that the total sum thus real- 
ized would be sufficient to complete the building, fear- 
ing that it would not be enough, agreed that if this 
sum was insufficient they should pay proportionately 
such sums as would complete it or forfeit their pews. 
This "syndicate" for "underwriting" the entire cost, 
as we might now call it, was signed by twenty-three 
persons. 

There does not seem to have been any stove. In Mor- 
gan Edwards's various volumes the presence or absence 
of a stove in almost every case is carefully noted; e.g., 
Pennepek had one, but the Philadelphia church had 
not. McMaster thus vividly describes the situation in the 
winter: " Not a meeting house was warmed, not a chim- 
ney, not a fireplace, not a stove was to be seen." 

The Third Church , Newport, is described by Edward s 
as having pews, galleries, and a " clock," the only men- 
tion I have seen of this useful monitor. Usually an hour- 
glass was on the pulpit, and its third turning marked the 
minister's final lap. Possibly in Newport they thought 
that the more aggressive suggestiveness of the clock, 
added to the frigidity of the air, might shorten the ser- 
mon by at least one turn of the hourglass in very cold 
weather. One minister, says McMaster, " preached in a 
great coat and mittens and complained that his voice 
was drowned by persons stamping . . . their feet to 
keep warm." 

For Dr. Manning and the prospective students a par- 

L 143 :! 



Brown University 

sonage had to be built. This was a large building, costing 
^2534 175. — an apparently formidable sum, but Pro- 
fessor Bronson informs me that it was "old tenor," and 
so was equivalent to only about $600. Even that was 
a large sum in those days. 

While examining the old bills and other documents 
in the archives of the Warren church I chanced upon 
some orthographical gems which I must share with 
you. Our forbears, who luckily escaped the many birch- 
ings visited upon their descendants by Noah Webster 
and Lindley Murray, were not satisfied with the dull 
uniformity of a single spelling, but exhibited the vivacity 
which accompanied an unexpected and often startlingly 
variegated orthography. Contemporaneous documents 
of the other early colleges showed an equally liberal 
charity. If political independence was desirable, why not 
also orthographical independence.'' If "Liberty of Un- 
licensed Printing" was good for John Milton, why was 
not "Liberty of Unlicensed Spelling" good for John 
Gano.? Accordingly they cut their teeth, as it were, upon 
such simple beginnings as "winder fraims," "dores," 
and "meten hous." These latter provided only a few 
possible variants. When it came to " Parsonage," how- 
ever, they found a rich field for their cooperative fer- 
tiUty of invention, and then went "ganz los." I discov- 
ered thirteen new, but all difi^erent,ways of spelling this 
one word, from" passeenage"to "posnag. "The follow- 
ing will suflSce: "parseenage,parsnige, pasanage,pas- 
seage, paisonnag, parsinig, pasneg hous, parsing hous, 
personage, personog, pasonage, posneg, parsnig."Had 
I made a thorough search, I might possibly have en- 
larged the list to a score, unless indeed their positive 
genius in cacography had exhausted itself. 

i 144 ;] 



Early Years of Brown University 

Possibly an English annex to the "Latin School" 
might have been useful. 

The prevalence of the unwarranted soft "g" is even 
more marked in a long itemized memorandum of the 
losses of Rev. Charles Thompson, of the class of 1769 
( who had followed Manning in the pastorate at War- 
ren ) , for his effects which had been destroyed when 
this parsonage and the church were burned by the Brit- 
ish. Among many " go as you please " spellings I find 
one mysterious "black gug" and two "ginn gugs." 
He does not add the comment " wore some" or " half 
wore," as he does to his shirts and "stockens." 

One Martin Luther, however, who emulated his 
namesake of the sixteenth century in overturning es- 
tablished usages, not content with a revolution in spell- 
ing, made additional assaults upon grammar and sobri- 
ety. In a bill dated July 3, 1764, he provided a new past 
participle for the verb "disburse." It reads: 

Disbusted by Martin Luther to Wordes bulding 
the meeteing hoiis 

960 feete of pine hordes £96, 

106 gallons of rum £254. 

Eroors excepted. 
Paid, 
Martin Luther. 

It is perhaps too much to hope that there were no 
"Eroors" in conduct as well as in the account which 
were "excepted." 

The members had not only to wrestle with the prob- 
lem of how to spell as well as to build the parsonage, 
but also how to finance it, for it differed from the church 
in not having any pews which could be sold. In 1767 
they therefore inaugurated a lottery for raising ^150 

C 145 ] 



Brown University 

"lawful money " toward finishing the parsonage house, 
as the students " cannot be accommodated in said house 
in its present condition." Those who bought the tickets 
were very properly called "adventurers." To us such 
a scheme, especially in connection with a church, seems 
very extraordinary. But at this time in England as well 
as in the colonies, and in Rhode Island during exactly 
a century (from 1744 to 1844), there was a rage for 
lotteries for almost every purpose — to build meeting- 
houses, wharves, bridges {e.g., the old Weybosset 
bridge in Providence), for opening of streets, for col- 
leges, etc. Thus the First Baptist Church in Providence 
in 1 774 asked for a lottery to raise ^2000 ; in 1 830 and 
1837 there were two lotteries for the Rhode Island 
Historical Society ; in 1 793 the Corporation of Rhode 
Island College petitioned the General Assembly for the 
grant of a lottery of I4000 for purchasing Dr. Forbes's 
orrery and other articles of philosophical apparatus and 
for the college library, etc.; in 1 796 another was asked 
by Brown University for ^25,000, and in i8n another 
for $20,000. Harvard and Princeton also were aided by 
lotteries. 

In the archives of the Warren church is the full 
printed proposal for such a lottery, dated November 28, 
1 794, and signed by our old friend Martin Luther ( who 
had " disbusted " certain monies for the meeting-house 
thirty years before) and two others. I have no doubt 
that Martin Luther and his fellow members would have 
stoutly maintained as a theological dogma that " ye can- 
not serve God and Mammon," but when it came to the 
practical work of building a new meeting-house to re- 
place the one burned by the British, they clearly com- 
bined the two, for the proposal reads as follows: "As 
[ 146 J 



Early Years of Brown University 

this lottery was granted for promoting public worship 
and the advancement of religioji we flatter ourselves 
that every well wisher to Society and good order will 
become cheerful adventurers." So far for piety, but 
Mammon now has its inning: "For those who adven- 
ture from motives of gain the scheme is advantageously 
calculated, there being less than two Blanks to a. Prize." 
The italics are in the original. 

As already stated, Manning was elected President at 
the second meeting of the Corporation, September 4, 
1765. His official title exceeded even Holmes's fa- 
mous "settee of professorships," for he was not only 
President but "Professor of Languages and other 
Branches of Learning." It is significant of the feeling 
that the location of the college at Warren was only 
temporary, that this vote continued," with full power 
to act immediately in these capacities at Warren, or 
elsewhere." In 1769, when Howell was elected "Pro- 
fessor of Natural Philosophy," the President's title was 
abridged to Professor of Moral Philosophy. 

One day before there was any President or Faculty, 
the first student was inscribed on the roll of the college 
— the first in the long and honored roll which now num- 
bers 7748 names. This first student, whose career we 
shall subsequently follow, was William Rogers, a boy of 
fourteen. For nine months and seventeen days he was 
the only student. On June 20, 1766, Richard Stites in- 
creased the "students" — a plural is now proper — to 
two, while four others entered during November,! 766. 
In 1768 a seventh student completed the first class, 
who were graduated in 1 769. The charge for tuition was 
twelve dollars per annum. On August 11,1 766, there is 
a receipt in Manning's handwriting for "three Spanish 

C 147 n 



Brown University 

milled dollars," being one quarter's tuition. Boarding 
cost a dollar and aquarter a week, single meals six cents. 

Manning's salary as president was much less in evi- 
dence than that as pastor. The income from the funds 
collected by Morgan Edwards in 1 767-68 was pledged 
for this salary. Notwithstanding this, a committee of 
the Corporation, on September 17,1 769, reported that 
the President had served the college for three years 
and had received no compensation, so the sum of ^50 
"lawful money" was ordered to be paid to him. This 
would be equivalent to $\66.66 in Spanish milled dol- 
lars. The committee very properly stated that in their 
opinion this sum was quite inadequate, and that he 
should not be debarred "from being recompensed in 
a more ample manner whenever it should be in the 
power of the Corporation to do the same." Fortunately 
the church and the Latin school eked out his Uving ex- 
penses. In 1 772, in a letter to Rev. John Ryland, Man- 
ning states that his salary was ^67 1 ss. 4-d. sterling, or 
about ?338.So scrupulous was he that he had always in- 
cluded as a part of this meagre salary the five guineas 
sent to him annually by Ryland from England. 

The first mention of any library was at the meeting 
of the Corporation in 1 768, when the President was re- 
quested to write to Morgan Edwards, then in London, 
to bring " such books as he shall think necessary at this 
time, not exceeding £^0 value." Several of the sub- 
scribers secured by Edwards gave some books. The 
University still has the pine table of William WiUiams, 
the drawers of which held the entire library while the 
college was in Warren. 

In 1 769 the first commencement was held in War- 
ren. On August 10, 1769, doubtless in preparation 

C 148 ] 



Early Years of Brown University 

for this notable event, a subscription list, headed by 
Manning with twelve shillings, was circulated for re- 
painting the meeting-house "both outside and inside," 
"provided the business be immediately prosecuted." 
On the day before this commencement the Corpora- 
tion voted "That the Meeting House in Warren be 
fitted up at the charge of the Corporation in the best 
manner the shortness of time will permit." 

It was a great day. "Tradition says that a Company 
of Baptist preachers from Georgia rode over a month 
on horseback to be there!" Apparently the governor 
did not attend this, the only commencement held in 
Warren. 

John Rowland gives a very vivid account of the state- 
liness of the first five commencements in Providence: 
" The Commencements in Providence for the first five 
years were held in Mr. Snow's meeting house, that be- 
ing then the largest in town. Governor Wanton always 
attended from Newport. . . . Escorted by the Company 
of Cadets in showy uniforms, he headed the procession 
with the President. The Governor's wig, which had 
been made in England, was of the size and pattern of 
that of the Speaker of the House of Commons, and so 
large that the shallow crowned hat could not be placed 
on his head without disturbing the curls. He therefore 
placed it under his left arm, and held his umbrella in 
his right hand. This was the first umbrella ever seen 
carried by a gentleman in Providence, though they had 
been some time in use by Ladies on a sunny day. Gov- 
ernor Wanton was the most dignified and respectable 
looking man we had ever seen. The white wig of Presi- 
ident Manning was of the largest dimensions usually 
worn in this country." 

I 149 ] 



Brown University 

For sixty years to my own knowledge the sheriff of 
the county of Providence, with his cockade, his broad 
blue sash, and his sword of state, without any deputies, 
has been amply sufficient to preserve " civil peace, good 
order and decorum at Commencement." 

The first commencement foreshadowed 1775, only 
six years away, for " not only the Candidates but even 
the President was dressed in American manufactures." 
There were both a morning and an afternoon session, 
and all the seven in the graduating class pronounced 
orations. Such was the avidity for oratory that Mor- 
gan Edwards also preached them a sermon in the even- 
ing. Two of the class debated the question whether 
the Americans could "affect to become an independent 
State." In this " Disputatio forensica " Varnum was a 
warm advocate of American freedom. " Doubtless," he 
says, " we should long since have obtained redress had 
we not been tormented by Worms in our own Bowels," 
z>.,"Torys."Thoughwarmly in favorof our independ- 
ence, his conclusion was that Great Britain could over- 
whelm us, and that the attempt to form an independent 
state would end in disaster. William Williams, however, 
believed that we could successfully resist Great Britain, 
and ended his speech with the words, in capital letters, 
"AMERICA SHALL BE FREE." The Salutatory and the 
" Syllogistic Disputation" were in Latin. (In 1776 one 
oration was in Hebrew. ) Charles Thompson, the vale- 
dictorian, "took a most affectionate leave of his class- 
mates," and the reporter adds," the Scene was tender, 
the Subject felt and the Audience affected." 

Of these first seven graduates, one died in 1 775. Four 
entered the patriot army. Richard Stites was a captain 
and died of wounds in 1 776. James M. Varnum became 

1 150 :] 



Early Years of Brown University 

distinguished as a major-general in the army, and later 
at the bar and as a member of Congress. He was able 
to converse in Latin with Blanchard,the quartermaster- 
general of the French forces in Providence. Charles 
Thompson was Manning's successor in the Warren 
church. In 1 778, while on leave from the army, he was 
captured by the British in their raid upon Warren and 
held a prisoner for some weeks. 

William Rogers had a noteworthy career. He was 
pastor of my own church 1772-75, chaplain and later 
brigade chaplain in the army 1776-81, professor of 
oratory and belles-lettres in the University of Penn- 
sylvania for twenty-two years, and a laureate of the 
University of Pennsylvania, of Yale, and of Prince- 
ton. In this same History ( page 58 ) I note that among 
his publications is "The Prayer delivered on Saturday 
the 22nd of February, 1800, in the German Reformed 
Church, Philadelphia, before the Pennsylvania Soci- 
ety of the Cincinnate, published by particular request, 
8vo. pp. 12." I must confess that the patience of the 
" Cincinnate" may well have been exhausted by twelve 
pages of prayer. 

One probably unique incident in his life is thus 
recorded. It is an extract from the records of King's 
Church ( now St. John's ) , Providence, and relates to 
Sunday, June 19, 1782: "At the request of the war- 
dens, the Rev. Mr. William Rogers, a Baptist clergy- 
man, preached in the Church this and the following 
Sunday, and on the 30th of the same month he again 
preached, and the wardens were requested to wait upon 
and thank him for this day's service, and present him 
with the contribution, and ask him to officiate in Church 
next Sunday in his way, provided he cannot conform 

1 151 : 



Brown University 

to our liturgy, but if he will conform, the congregation 
invite him further to serve them." The italics are in the 
original. 

Of the other two members of this first class, one 
was a fellow of the University for twenty-nine years, a 
teacher, and a pastor. The seventh died about 1785. 

But if the graduating class was small, the number of 
honorary degrees — twenty-two — was large, over three 
times the number of degrees in course. Of these, seven 
are curiously stated to have received their degree " at 
their own request." They were all college men, three 
from Harvard, two from Princeton, and one each from 
Yale and the University of Pennsylvania. Fourteen 
were " well recommended by the Faculty for literary 
merit;" four of these were college men. One of the 
twenty-two, Henry Ward, was accidentally omitted 
from both lists by the reporter. Six of the twenty-two 
were clergymen in Great Britain. Among the Ameri- 
cans were David Howell, the second member of the 
Faculty, Joseph Wanton, the deputy governor, and 
four clergymen, staunch early friends of the college, 
Morgan Edwards, Samuel Jones, Hezekiah Smith, 
and Samuel Stillman. 

Master of Arts was the only honorary degree con- 
ferred until 1 784, when Stephen Hopkins was given an 
LL.D. In 1 786 Granville Sharp, the philanthropist and 
founder of the Society for the Abolition of Slavery, was 
similarly honored. The next year the same degree was 
given to Jefferson; in 1790, to Washington; in 1792, 
to Hamilton; and in 1797, to John Adams. In 1840 
Benjamin Franklin — not the original philosopher but 
an Episcopal clergyman — was graduated with an A.B. 

In the broadside or programme of the first commence- 

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Early Years of Brown University 

ment one very significant sentence appears, but in small 
type: "Nomina alphabetice disposita sunt." In the older 
colleges a different practice had prevailed. "In all the 
Harvard College catalogs previous to 1773," says Sib- 
ley, " the graduates . . . are arranged not in alphabeti- 
cal order, but according to their social position or fam- 
ily rank. Judge Wingate, writing to Librarian Peirce 
respecting the excitement which was generally called 
up when a class in college was ' placed,' says ' the schol- 
ars were often enraged beyond bounds for their disap- 
pointment, and it was some time before a class could 
be settled down to an acquiescence in the allotment.' 
The higher part of the class, those whose names came 
first in the earlier catalogs, generally had the most in- 
fluential friends ; and they commonly had the best cham- 
bers in college assigned them. They also had a right to 
help themselves first at the table in commons. 'I think,' 
Judge Wingate concludes, 'that the government of 
the college, in my day, was a complete aristocracy.'" 
A practice similar to this prevailed when families were 
seated in church. In the list of scholars at Harrow in the 
eighteenth century, "Mister" always signified the son 
of a peer. Democratic, liberty-loving Rhode Island in this 
simple and inconspicuous word," alphabetice,"reechoed 
the new note for democracy and liberty sounded by 
Yale a year earlier. But we took this stand at our very 
first possible opportunity, that is, at the very first com- 
mencement. 

The date of the annual meeting of the Corporation 
was fixed by the charter on the first Wednesday in 
September, "at which or at any other time the Public 
Commencement may be held and celebrated." Com- 
mencement from the beginning until 1870, eleven 
i 153 ] 



Brown University 

years after I graduated, was always held on the first 
Wednesday in September. This was most inconvenient 
for the students, and a severe tax on the resources of 
not a few. The college work ended in June, and to com- 
pel men to come back three months later simply to re- 
ceive their "sheepskins" was a hardship. Moreover, it 
was equally inconvenient for the people of Providence, 
especially as the summer vacations grew longer and 
longer and people returned to the city later and later. 
Finally, in 1870, the date of commencement was 
changed to the third Wednesday in June. 

At the second meeting of the Corporation ( 1 765 ) it 
was directed that a seal be prepared, but a copperplate 
for diplomas was not ordered until September, 1773. 
Possibly this was partly due to the odious Stamp Act, 
for, said Senator La Fayette S. Foster, speaking at the 
centennial dinner: "Lord Grenville, the Chancellor of 
the Exchequer, in March, 1764, . . . gave notice in 
Parliament that he would apply the stamp act to the 
colonies, and that stamp act imposed a tax even upon 
college diplomas." Meantime the diplomas were evi- 
dently written, for Manning, in a letter to Rev. John 
Ryland on November 12, 1772, says that the college 
had conferred an A.M. on Ryland's son, "but through 
my hurry and absence from home since Commence- 
ment I have not got his diploma written." 

When the college was moved to Providence, Man- 
ning reopened his Latin school, which later became 
the University Grammar School. He was immediately 
invited to preach for the First Baptist Church and later 
became its pastor. 

The second commencement (1770) was held in 
Mr. Snow's meeting-house, and notwithstanding the 

i 154 n 



Early Years of Brown University 

reported "decorum" that prevailed, the Corporation 
were obliged to pay for breakages of windows, etc., 
owing to the throng. "The members of the Grammar 
School joined in the procession. Before the assembly 
broke up a piece from Homer was pronounced by Mas- 
ter Billy Edwards (son of Morgan Edwards), one of 
the Grammar School boys not nine years old." 

Poor Billy Edwards ! 

Four students only were graduated, one of whom, 
Theodore Foster, attained prominence as a United 
States senator, judge, and antiquary. But the Fellows 
kept up the pace set the year before in the matter of 
honorary degrees. This ratio in 1 769 was three for one, 
and in 1 770, with four graduates, they gave the honor- 
ary A.M. to twelve men, of whom seven were English- 
men. Only one of the twelve ( Benjamin West ) achieved 
any distinction. 

In the bill of Nicholas Brown & Co. for the expenses 
incurred in building University Hall and the President's 
house in 1770, several items are of interest. 

At the meeting of the Corporation ( held, be it ob- 
served, at 7 a.m.), at the time of the very successful 
first commencement in September, 1769, a committee 
was appointed to buy a site in Bristol county ( in which 
Warren was situated) and erect a building. This 
aroused a lively opposition in other counties against 
Warren as the permanent location. A special meeting 
of the Corporation was held at Newport, November 
14 to 16. Professor Bronson's History gives the details. 
Suffice it to say that the Corporation rescinded the 
vote in favor of Warren, and directed that the building 
committee " do not proceed to procure any other ma- 
terials . . . excepting such as may easily be transported 

c 155 : 



Brown University 

to any other place," if such place be selected before 
January i , 1 770. It was then explicitly voted "that the 
College edifice be at Providence," upon the condition 
that the subscription of Providence be larger than that 
of Newport or of any other county. 

Another special meeting for final action was called 
in Warren for February 7, 1770. The debate on the 
location was evidently conducted in public, for it was 
before "a crowded audience." It was also very long 
and very heated. The discussion lasted from ten o'clock 
Wednesday morning until ten o'clock Thursday night, 
when finally Providence won over Newport by twenty- 
one to fourteen votes. The decision turned upon the 
amount of the respective subscriptions. Moses Brown 
confesses that, as at first computed, Newport exceeded 
the subscriptions of Providence "land and all." The 
word "land" throws fight on certain items in the bill 
of Nicholas Brown & Co. , for on January 1 , 1 770 ( over 
a month before the final vote in favor of Providence 
was taken ) , are the following items : ( 1 ) Three persons 
(only one of whom, Joseph Brown, was a member of 
the Corporation ) were sent to Cambridge " to view the 
Colleges." Their total expenses were ^7 35. S}^d. ( 2 ) 
Five shillings and three pence were voted for the hire 
of horses to go seven miles " to purchase the lot for the 
College ; "and ( 3 ) three shillings and seven pence were 
paid for a horse and ferriage in going to Rehoboth "to 
contract for 6nc^." While the entries are all dated Janu- 
ary 1 , 1 779, they were clearly for services rendered at 
various times before that date. Evidently, therefore, the 
Providence people had faith that the ultimate decision 
would be in their favor. 

As an illustration of the habits of the time, some 
C ^56 3 



Early Years of Brown University 

other items also in this bill are of interest. On June 19, 
1770, an entry reads one shilling and six pence "for 
one pail to carry water to drink in." This pail, how- 
ever, I fear did not suffer from over-use, for from that 
same date, June 19, to July 18, just twenty-six days ex- 
cluding Sundays, thirty-six items appear for "West 
India rum," "good rum," "very good rum," or "old 
rum." When the president's house was "raised" the 
rum was sweetened with sugar. The laying of each 
floor of University Hall and the raising of the roof 
were rewarded by sweetened rum. The well-diggers 
were especially favored, for twenty-four of the thirty- 
six items were for them, and when they actually " found 
the spring" the chancellor, Stephen Hopkins, himself 
ordered an extra half gallon. 

But I have lingered too long over the details of this 
interesting though brief period of our history. Looking 
back over all these six years of almost disheartening 
struggle, what lesson should we learn .? 

The honored, yea, revered founders of this Univer- 
sity were men of heroic mold. Undaunted by the many 
obstacles blocking their pathway, they fearlessly grap- 
pled with them all and overcame them all. They builded 
into meeting-house and parsonage, and Latin school and 
college, their own rugged character and determination 
to succeed, and what is more they did succeed. They 
have been splendidly seconded by their successors. 
Witness the fair " College sur la Colline," and witness 
its worthy fruitage in private culture and character, in 
public service to church and state, to industry and in- 
vention, to literature, education, theology, medicine, and 
law, and to honorable commercial life. 

C 157 3 



Brown University 

The little seed planted by Morgan Edwards, watered 
and watched over by James Manning, has grown to 
be a stately tree, whose branches have sheltered every 
creed, whose fruit has nourished six generations of 
brave men and women who have helped to build, to 
preserve, to instruct, and to develop this nation; who 
have carried the Gospel to the ends of the earth ; who 
have taught us to live not by bread alone, but by the 
things of the spirit. These are the things that elevate 
and ennoble character, and Brown University has ever 
set on high these real and eternal verities of God. 

The exercises in the church were brought to a close 
with the singing of an anthem by the church choir, and 
the benediction by President Faunce. 

At half after five o'clock a supper was served in the 
vestry of the church to delegates and invited guests. 
Mr. John E. Thompson, a great-grandson of the Rev. 
Charles Thompson, the valedictorian of the first class 
graduating from the University in 1 769, presided at 
the supper. Addresses were made after the supper by 
President Faunce, Andrew Jackson Jennings, '72, and 
Rev. Franklin G. McKeever, D.D., '81. 



r 158 : 



The Torchlight Procession 

ON Tuesday evening, thirteenth October, a Torch- 
light Procession of undergraduates and alumni 
in costume paraded the streets of Providence, escorted 
by the National Guard of the state and most of the 
chartered commands. This parade formed the special 
contribution of the students to the sesquicentennial 
celebration, and they were ably assisted by large num- 
bers of the alumni and the citizen soldiery of Rhode 
Island. The procession, as it marched amid the throngs 
of spectators lining the streets, typified symbolically 
scenes and events in the early life of the colony and the 
University. The torch-bearers gathered on the middle 
campus; the military escort formed on Lincoln Field. 
Brigadier-GeneralCharlesW. Abbott, Jr., was the chief 
marshal of the procession, and Colonel Henry Bray ton 
Rose, '81 , was the marshal of the University division. 
At the head of the procession, preceded by mounted 
police skirmishers and a platoon of policemen on foot, 
came the chief marshal and his staff, leading the mili- 
tary division. The Rhode Island National Guard came 
next, made up successively of the Coast Defense com- 
mands, a squadron of Cavalry, the Hospital Corps, a 
battery of Field Artillery, and the Rhode Island Naval 
Battalion. The chartered companies were represented 
by the United Train of Artillery ; the First Light Infan- 
try Regiment, with a detail of the Newport Artillery as 
guests; the Warren Artillery; and the Varnum Con- 
tinentals. The University division, with Marshal Rose 
and his staff at its head, was composed of alumni of 
classes from 1870 to 1914, and of the undergraduates. 
Special features brought up the rear, among which 

C 159 3 



Brown University- 
were the notable crew of the class of 1873, and the 
famous ball team of the class of 1870. The "Junior 
Burial," with a crape-enveloped book-loaded hearse, 
drawn by a pair of ancient horses, temporarily formed 
the rear of the procession, soon to wander off, presum- 
ably to celebrate the ancient rite of the burning and 
burial of the books. 

The Coast Defense commands were in khaki ; the 
other National Guardsmen in regulation blue ; the First 
Light Infantry were in their full-dress uniforms of 
scarlet and light blue with bearskin shakos ; the United 
Train of Artillery in artillery red and blue; and the 
Varnum Continentals, as their name would imply, in 
the colonial colors of white, bufF, and blue. The alumni 
of the classes from 1870 to 1899 led the torch-bearers 
in academic cap and gown, their parti-colored mortar- 
boards being brown on top and white beneath, their 
gowns white with brown trimmings; graduates of 
the classes from 1 900 to 1 905 followed in the knee- 
breeches, short jackets, and sugar-loaf hats of the com- 
panions of Roger Williams ; members of the classes 
from 1 906 to 1 908 represented in Quaker gray the first- 
comers of the Society of Friends to the infant colony ; 
and classmen from 1909 to 1914 personified the com- 
patriots of Lafayette who were quartered in University 
Hall during the American Revolution. Of the student 
body the Senior Class, that of 191 5, in Continental uni- 
forms, typified with fife and drum the "Spirit of '76." 
The Junior Class, that of 1916, in blue uniforms with 
the tall shako of the period, symbolized " the Soldiers 
of the War of 1812." The Sophomores, class of 1917, 
in white trousers and red stocking-caps, appropriately 
represented the devil-may-care French sailors who as- 

C 160 -2 



The Torchlight Procession 

sisted in the American Revolution. The Freshmen, class 
of 1918, disguised as Narragansett Indians in red blan- 
kets^ with copper-colored faces and a feather in the 
scalplock, gave a fantastic air to the spectacle. " Gentle- 
men of the Colonial Period " and "Gentlemen of the 
Early Nineteenth Century," with beaver hats and ruf- 
fled shirt fronts, brought the procession to an effective 
ending. The route of march, upon starting from Lin- 
coln Field, was Manning Street, Hope Street, Young 
Orchard Avenue, Cooke Street, Waterman Street to 
Prospect Street, College Street, Benefit Street, Water- 
man Street, Exchange Place, Dorrance Street, Wey- 
bosset Street, Cathedral Square; countermarching, 
Weybosset Street, Market Square, College Street to 
the University campus. When passing the City Hall 
the procession was reviewed by Governor Pothier and 
Mayor Gainer with other state and city officials. Upon 
the return of the procession to the campus a band con- 
cert was given, and there was a display upon a large 
screen of stereopticon pictures depicting early scenes 
and men connected with the college. The event was 
brought to an appropriate ending by a huge bonfire on 
Lincoln Field. 



[ 161 n 



Historical Address 
and the Presentation of Delegates 

ON Wednesday forenoon, fourteenth October, 
at half after ten o'clock, the Historical Address 
was delivered in the First Baptist Meeting-House by 
Charles Evans Hughes, LL.D., of the class of 1881, an 
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United 
States. After the address the visiting delegates were 
formally presented to President Faunce and Chancellor 
Arnold BufRim Chace. 

At nine forty-five o'clock the academic procession 
was formed on the front campus under the direction of 
the university marshal, Henry Van Amburgh Joslin, 
of the class of 1867. The visiting delegates, invited 
guests, and members of the Corporation and Faculty 
together with the senior classes were in academic cos- 
tume. Promptly at ten o'clock the procession, with the 
American Band and the chief marshal and his aids at its 
head, the band playing the "Commencement March," 
began its march in reverseorder to the meeting-house. 

The order of the procession was as follows : 

First Division: The Sheriff of Providence County, 
the President, the Chancellor, the Orator of the Day, 
the Board of Fellows, the Trustees, the Deans of the 
University, the Faculty, and other officers of the Uni- 
versity. 

Second Division: Delegates from institutions in 
countries other than the United States, Delegates from 
institutions in the United States. 

Third Division: His Excellency the Governor of 
Rhode Island, the Governor's Staff, the United States 

C 162 ;] 



Historical Address 

Senators from Rhode Island, Members of Congress 
from Rhode Island, his Honor the Lieutenant-Governor 
of Rhode Island, members of the State Senate, the 
Speaker of the House, members of the House of Repre- 
sentatives, the District Judge of the United States for 
the District of Rhode Island, the judges of the Supreme 
Court,the judges of the Superior Court,other officers of 
the State of Rhode Island, the Mayor of Providence, 
the President of the Board of Aldermen, the President 
of the Common Council, other officers of the City of 
Providence. 

Fourth Division: Diplomats, former officers of in- 
struction in the University, the ministers of churches 
in Providence, representatives of Alumni Associations, 
members of visiting committees of the University, other 
guests. 

Fifth Division : The Alumni of the University in the 
order of their classes, the Senior Class. 

Sixth Division: The Dean of the Women's College 
in Brown University, the Advisory Council of the 
Women's College, the Alumnae of the University in 
the order of their classes, the Senior Class of the Wo- 
men's College. 

Upon arriving at the First Baptist Meeting-House 
the procession halted, opened ranks according to cus- 
tom, and in the ancient order the President and Chan- 
cellor, preceded by the chief marshal with his aids and 
the Sheriff' of Providence County, led the way into the 
meeting-house. Fairman's Orchestra opened the ex- 
ercises with the overture to "Tancredi," by Rossini. 
President Faunce offered prayer, and then introduced 
Mr. Justice Hughes, whose address follows: 

C 163 ] 



Brown University 

WE pause with reverent retrospect as this institu- 
tion of learning completes its third half-century 
of service. We linger for a moment to reconstruct the 
past ; to fill the familiar scene with the officers and stu- 
dents of other days; to recognize, with grateful appre- 
ciation, the continuity of high-minded effort which has 
made Brown University a vital force in State and Na- 
tion. This historic edifice is itself a memorial of almost 
the entire period. In this place every President — from 
Manning to Faunce — has stirred ambitious youth by 
eloquent counsel; and through these aisles — from the 
year of Independence — has passed the long proces- 
sion of the sons of Brown. We go still further back for 
the origin of the college, — to the time when the Seven 
Years' War had established England's supremacy in 
the New World ; when the Peace of Paris was of yester- 
day and the Stamp Act of the morrow; when the Repub- 
lic was not yet in the thought of its founders, and Rhode 
Island's committee of correspondence, Stephen Hop- 
kins, Daniel Jenckes, and Nicholas Brown, — three of 
our first Board of Trustees, — were wishing "that some 
method could be hit upon for collecting the sentiments 
of each colony, and for uniting and forming the sub- 
stance of them all into one common defense of the 
whole." 

At the beginning of the seventh decade of the eigh- 
teenth century there were six colleges in the American 
colonies. Three, Harvard, William and Mary, and Yale, 
already had long histories; the others, the College of 
New Jersey, King's ( later Columbia ), and the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania, were recent foundations. They 
had few students, and very slender resources. In curricu- 
lum, they were narrow ; in the government of students, 

C 164 1 



Historical Address 

paternal; in inspiration and abiding influence, powerful. 
To this little group Rhode Island College was added 
in the year 1764. Naked it came into the educational 
world ; chartered, but without possessions. It had neither 
the aid of public moneys nor private endowment. But 
there were enlisted in its behalf earnest leaders of a 
religious body which was unrepresented in the control 
of the other colleges, and the new undertaking, with 
promise of advantage to the prosperous and enlight- 
ened colony, engaged the active interest of many of its 
most influential citizens. 

The enterprise was under denominational auspices, 
but the design was notably liberal. The Baptists, still 
comparatively few, were rapidly increasing. Steadfastly 
asserting the direct responsibility of the soul to its 
Maker, insisting that the state should confine its au- 
thority to civil things, and possessing a vital faith which 
enabled them to triumph over the discouragements of 
poverty, scorn, and oppression, these champions of lib- 
erty of conscience were advancing with growing power 
to the happy days — as yet unseen — when the cardinal 
tenet of the poor and despised sectaries should be pro- 
claimed as the essential basis of an enduring republic. 
But there was a serious need of a change of attitude 
toward education. Emphasizing religious experience, 
they had largely neglected letters ; and the opposition 
of men distinguished for their learning had fostered 
an unfortunate aversion. There was a lamentable lack 
of well-equipped pastors. The wiser minds among the 
Baptists were anxious to stimulate educational interest 
by founding an institution which should make a strong 
appeal to denominational sentiment, and to provide 
an opportunity for liberal training with an environment 



Brown University 

undeniably free from all antagonism to their cherished 
principles, whether in spirit or in instruction. It was in 
the Philadelphia Association, then representing Baptist 
churches which were scattered from New York to Vir- 
ginia, that the establishment of the new college was first 
proposed. This was in the year 1 762 ; and to the ener- 
getic Welshman, Morgan Edwards, pastor of the Phila- 
delphia church, is accorded the honor of having started 
the movement. Rhode Island was finally chosen as the 
colony best adapted to the purpose. It was a natural 
choice, regardful of the liberal sentiment of the colony, 
the large share of the Baptists in its settlement and de- 
velopment, and the excellent prospect of strong sup- 
port. To Newport, in the summer of 1 763, came James 
Manning, — who had been graduated at the College of 
New Jersey the year before, — bearing the Association's 
proposal. It met with immediate favor, and the charter 
was granted in the following year. The plan of control 
was unique. The Corporation of the college was com- 
posed of two branches, — "that of the Trustees, and that 
of the Fellowship ; " and, in general, to the validity of all 
acts " their joint concurrence" was required, except that 
" conferring the Academical Degrees" was to " belong 
exclusively to the Fellowship as a learned Faculty." 
There were to be twelve Fellows: eight Baptists, and 
the rest "indifferently of any or all Denominations." 
The President was to be a Baptist and one of the Fel- 
lows. The Trustees were to be thirty-six in number: 
twenty-two Baptists, five Friends or Quakers, four 
Congregationahsts, and five Episcopalians. No provi- 
sion was made for the representation of the Govern- 
ment. The Chancellor of the University was to be 
chosen by the Corporation from the Trustees, upon their 



Historical Address 

nomination, and was to act as the Moderator of that 
branch. 

I refer to these well-known facts to bring into clear 
relief their true import. These careful provisions were 
inserted not to make the college a centre of sectarian- 
ism, — a fortress of denominational doctrine, — but to in- 
sure its freedom ; not to gain a narrow partisan advan- 
tage, but to maintain a fair and equal chance. At a time 
when sectarian antagonisms were still unfortunately 
keen, these Baptists — in the colony where they were 
most numerous and their influence was strongest — in 
effect constituted themselves the trustees of the free- 
dom of learning ; and in this trusteeship the represen- 
tatives of the other denominations were invited to as- 
sume a definite share. It was the original purpose of the 
Philadelphia Association, as Isaac Backus, the contem- 
porary historian, tells us, "to erect a college . . . under 
the chief direction of the Baptists, in which education 
might be promoted, and superior learning obtained ,yr^^ 
of any sectarian religious tests." The enterprise natu- 
rally lost nothing of its liberal character in the Rhode 
Island atmosphere, and the charter reflected the colo- 
nial tradition. In its preamble, reciting the aim of the 
establishment, there is an utter absence of reference to 
any sectarian or ecclesiastical object, and the purpose is 
defined to be the securing of benefits to Society "by 
forming the rising Generation to Virtue, Knowledge, 
and useful Literature ; and thus preserving in the Com- 
munity a Succession of Men duly qualified for discharg- 
ing the Offices of Life with Usefulness and Reputation." 
Nor was the design left to the chance of its prosperity 
under this general statement, but in the body of the 
charter there was set forth this memorable bill of rights: 



Brown University 

"That into this liberal and catholic Institution shall 
never be admitted any religious Tests: But on the con- 
trary, all the Members hereof shall forever enjoy full, 
free, absolute, and uninterrupted Liberty of Conscience: 
And that the Places of Professors, Tutors, and all other 
Officers, the President alone excepted, shall be free and 
open for all Denominations of Protestants: And that 
Youth of all religious Denominations shall and may be 
freely admitted to the equal Advantages, Emoluments 
and Honors of the College or University ; and shall re- 
ceive a like, fair, generous, and equal Treatment dur- 
ing their residence therein, they conducting themselves 
peaceably, and conforming to the Laws and Statutes 
thereof. And that the public Teaching shall, in general, 
respect the Sciences ; and that the Sectarian Differences 
of Opinions, shall not make any Part of the public and 
classical Instruction : Although all religious Controver- 
sies may be studied freely, examined and explained 
by the President, Professors, and Tutors, in a personal, 
separate and distinct Manner, to the Youth of any or 
each Denomination: And above all, a constant Regard 
be paid to, and effectual Care taken of, the Morals of 
the College." 

It must be remembered that at this time, in the older 
New England colleges — now noted for their liberality 
— sectarianism was still powerful. Harvard, whose lib- 
eral tendencies disturbed the more conservative, con- 
tinued to serve the purpose of a theological school, and 
courses in divinity under a professor of approved ortho- 
doxy were still required. It was in 1 784, says President 
Quincy, that the first step was taken "towards sepa- 
rating, as to the studies, those who intended to make 
theology a profession " from other students. At Yale 
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Historical Address 

it was regarded as essential that the student " should 
be grounded in polemical divinity according to the As- 
sembly's Catechism, Dr. Ames' Medulla, and Cases of 
Conscience," and that the professors and tutors should 
give public consent to the Catechism and Confession 
of Faith. The President and professors of William 
and Mary, it is said, were required to subscribe to the 
Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England. It is 
true that the College of New Jersey and King's College 
were markedly free from narrowness; and that the 
University of Pennsylvania breathed the broad and 
humane spirit of Franklin. But there was still ample 
occasion for the emphatic provision of the Rhode Is- 
land charter, — at once a declaration of principle and a 
protest. It was in no sense the thought of the founders 
of this college that it should not be the instrument of 
Christian culture, but while it was undoubtedly the in- 
tention that there should be abundant place for the fun- 
damental truths which were received by all denomina- 
tions, the controversies of sects were banished from its 
walls. It is the distinctive stamp of the charter of Brown 
that more comprehensively and explicitly than any col- 
lege charter that preceded it, it bound the college to 
permanent catholicity, not only in its prohibition of re- 
ligious tests but in expressly excluding from the cur- 
riculum sectarian instruction, and that it united in a 
fixed relation the representatives of the four religious 
denominations then prominent in the community, as 
the managers of the affairs of the college and as the 
guarantors of its continued liberality. 

During its first sixty-two years, the college had 
three Presidents, James Manning, Jonathan Maxcy, 
and Asa Messer. It was the task of the first to lay se- 

c 169 : 



Brown University 

curely the foundations of the college during the difficult 
days of political reconstruction. Chosen to be President 
in the year 1 765, — at the age of twenty-six, — Manning 
held the office until his death in 1791. Prior to his elec- 
tion he had established a Latin school at Warren, and 
had become the pastor of the Baptist Church which was 
formed at that place under his guidance. There, in the 
parsonage of the church, the first students of the col- 
lege were received, — President Manning constituting 
the Faculty. And it was at Warren, in 1769, that the 
first class was graduated, with seven members. A few 
thousand dollars constituted the first funds, obtained 
through hundreds of small contributions in England 
and Ireland, and in South Carolina and Georgia, in 
sums ranging from one shilling to several pounds. In 
the rivalry over the choice of a permanent location. 
Providence carried the day, and the removal to the 
present site took place in 1 770. Here, on the "high and 
pleasant hill" which memory loves, was soon erected 
the " College Edifice " which we know as University 
Hall. Patterned after Nassau Hall at Princeton, its size 
demonstrated the abiding faith of the founders in mak- 
ing this generous provision for a college having twenty- 
one students and a Faculty of two, — the President and 
a tutor. But the sneers of enemies did not diminish the 
confidence of friends. The latter was again attested in 
1775, the entire population of Providence being then 
less than four thousand five hundred, in the erection by 
the Baptist Society of this spacious meeting-house "for 
the publick Worship of Almighty God, and also for 
holding Commencements in." The cost of the college 
edifice was defrayed by subscriptions, and that of the 
meeting-house by resort to a lottery. It was in accord 

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Historical Address 

with the standards of the time thus to appeal to the pas- 
sion for gains without toil, and in this way " the cheer- 
ful assistance and encouragement" of the public in the 
interest of religion and education was most readily 
obtained. Just as the collegiate establishment seemed 
secure in its permanent home, and the number of its 
students had grown to be over forty, the Revolution 
threatened its destruction. At the close of the year 1 776 
the college building was taken for a barracks and hos- 
pital for the American army, and when, in 1780, it 
ceased to be needed for this purpose, it was at once 
seized for use as a hospital for the French troops. The 
building was released in a wretched condition in 1782. 
During these years, the college exercises were neces- 
sarily suspended ; but they were resumed at the earliest 
opportunity. Starting again, with twelve students, in 
1 783, the college steadily grew until in 1 790, President 
Manning's last year, there were about seventy in at- 
tendance and twenty-two were graduated. We cannot 
overestimate the value of the fidelity of the members of 
the Corporation during this period of struggle and dis- 
tress, but to Manning must be given the credit for the 
energy, tact, and public spirit which inspired coopera- 
tion. A forceful preacher, talented instructor, and skil- 
ful administrator, — imposing in presence and gracious 
in manner, — a man of piety and common sense, he won 
for the institution a sure place in the public esteem. 

Maxcy and Messer, the second and third Presidents 
of the college, were the fruits of its own culture. Both 
were pupils of Manning. Maxcy had been a tutor since 
his graduation in 1787; — "our youngest tutor" and a 
" youth of genius," said Manning. He was only twenty- 
four when he took the president's chair, but his rare 
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Brown University 

gifts were soon appreciated. While not so virile as Man- 
ning, he was more imaginative, more delicate in his per- 
ceptions, and had a wider range of learning. A grace- 
ful speaker, and the possessor of unusual aptitude for 
teaching, he heightened the reputation of the college 
during the ten years of his administration. Going from 
Rhode Island to Union College, and thence to South 
Carolina College, he enjoyed the distinction of serv- 
ing in three presidencies with eminent success. His suc- 
cessor, Asa Messer, of the class of 1790, had been a 
tutor in the college for five years, and a professor for six 
years. He was of marked individuality, vigorous, unpo- 
etical, sagacious; and for twenty-four years, until 1826, 
the college had the benefit of his leadership. It was early 
in Messer 's time, in 1804, that the name was changed 
to Brown University, in honor of Nicholas Brown, of 
the class of 1786, on his giving I5000 to found a pro- 
fessorship of Oratory and Belles-Lettres. His father, 
Nicholas Brown, had been a member of the Board of 
Trustees for the twenty-six years following its organ- 
ization, and he himself was in the midst of a service 
(begun in 1791 ) which was to cover a period of fifty 
years, — thirty-four as Trustee and sixteen as Fellow. 
It was also during Messer's administration, in 1811, 
that a medical school was established ; it continued until 
1828, having eighty-seven graduates, among whom 
were a considerable number enjoying careers of high 
distinction. As the student body steadily became larger, 
— there were 152 in 1821, exclusive of those in the 
medical school, — another dormitory was needed; and, 
in 1822, Nicholas Brown erected Hope College, which 
was named in honor of Mrs. Hope Ives, Mr. Brown's 
sister. University Hall, which hitherto had embraced 

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Historical Address 

chapel, offices, library, recitation rooms, dormitory, and 
commons, now shared with "Hope" some of its uses. 
But while the college rejoiced in two buildings, besides 
the president's house, its productive funds at the close 
of President Messer's administration were only slightly 
in excess of $30,000. This need not surprise us. It was 
still the day of small things, financially, in great col- 
leges. It has been estimated that the productive funds 
of all the colleges in America at the beginning of the 
nineteenth century amounted to less than $500,000. It 
was a time when students almost paid for their educa- 
tion. Yet the tuition fees at Brown were small, — $20 a 
year — they had formerly been as low as $16, — and 
room rent was only $4. a year, with library fees of like 
amount. 

In its discipline — aside from the matter of theologi- 
cal instruction — the college could not fail to follow in 
the main the traditions established for American col- 
leges by Harvard and Yale. Two of the original Board 
of Fellows were graduates of the former, and one of 
the latter. A more direct influence was exerted by the 
College of New Jersey, the Alma Mater of Manning, 
and of David Howell, the first tutor. Not only is there 
a remarkable correspondence in the incidents of the 
early history of the two colleges, but the laws and 
customs of Brown were taken largely from those of 
Princeton, even, we are told, "to the peculiar stamp of 
the foot by the visiting officer at the door of a student's 
room, which no student was allowed to counterfeit." 
While the early discipline was narrow, it had a marked 
effectiveness, as is shown in the record of the gradu- 
ates. Under these three Presidents, 1085 were admitted 
to the degree of Bachelor of Arts. Sixty-eight became 

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Brown University 

Baptist preachers; among those were eight college 
presidents, Jonathan Maxcy,Asa Messer,Barnas Sears, 
and Alexis Caswell, of Brown ; Jeremiah ChapHn,Rufus 
Babcock,and Eliphaz Fay,of Waterville; and Jonathan 
Going, of Granville; and the list includes the revered 
names of William Rogers, pastor and educator, David 
Benedict, historian of the Baptists, and Adoniram Jud- 
son, the dauntless hero of Christian missions. The 
Baptist denomination had thus been invigorated by 
men trained in these halls, and its influence had been 
strengthened by the prestige of its representatives in 
education. But this denominational advantage had not 
been gained at the expense of the institution's catho- 
licity. During the period mentioned, a far larger num- 
ber of graduates — as was to be expected in view of the 
relative strength of the denominations of the time — 
entered the ministry of other churches. One hundred 
and fifty-one became Congregational ministers, among 
them being Willard Preston, President of the Univer- 
sity of Vermont, Enoch Pond, President of Bangor The- 
ological Seminary, and Edwards A. Park, for forty-five 
years in active service as professor at Andover. Twenty- 
nine took orders in the Episcopal Church, including Jas- 
per Adams, President of the College of Charleston and 
of Hobart College, Benjamin Bos worth Smith, Bishop 
of Kentucky, and George Burgess, Bishop of Maine. In 
addition, there were Wilbur Fisk, the eminent Metho- 
dist, President of Wesley an University, and fourteen 
Unitarian ministers. 

Nearly three-fourths of the graduates of this period 

entered other fields of activity, and in their lives of 

varied service to the community was strikingly fulfilled 

the broad purpose expressed in the charter. Here were 

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Historical Address 

trained state executives, legislators, judges, lawyers, 
editors, teachers, physicians, and successful merchants 
with a horizon beyond the counting-room. Rhode Island 
received a large share in this benefit. From the outset 
she gave many of her best men to the work of the Cor- 
poration. The first Chancellor was the patriot, Stephen 
Hopkins, then Governor of the colony, and associated 
with him on the Board of Trustees were Samuel Ward, 
his distinguished rival, Josias Lyndon and Joseph Wan- 
ton, Governors to be, and others eminent in the com- 
munity. On the first Board of Fellows were Joshua Bab- 
cock, several times Chief Justice, and Thomas Eyres; 
and continuously thereafter on both boards were men 
of high distinction in the state. It was natural that the 
college should make a rich return to Rhode Island. In 
the early years of which we are speaking, we find 
among the graduates nine United States Senators from 
this state: Theodore Foster, James Burrill, James Fen- 
ner, Jeremiah Brown Howell, William Hunter, Na- 
than Fellows Dixon, Philip Allen, John B. Francis, and 
John H. Clarke. The stalwart James Fenner — "Old 
Durham," as he was called — was repeatedly elected 
Governor of the state; and Philip Allen, John B. Fran- 
cis, and Charles Jackson also held that ofl^ce. Most 
notable was the contribution to the bar and bench. In 
the first class was graduated James Mitchell Varnum, 
one of the most distinguished lawyers of his day. It was 
Varnum who made the argument for the defense in 
the famous case of Trevett z'.Weeden — tried before 
the Superior Court of Rhode Island in the year prior to 
the meeting of the Federal Convention — in which, de- 
nouncing an act of the General Assembly as unconsti- 
tutional, he forcibly set forth the grounds upon which 
L 175 2 



Brown University 

the judiciary should refuse to give effect to legislation 
contravening the fundamental law and thus transcend- 
ing the assigned limit of legislative power. We are told 
by Chief Justice Thomas Durfee that the "generation 
after Varnum ushered in the golden age of forensic ora- 
tory for Rhode Island; "he mentions Burges, Burrill, 
Robbins, Hunter, Whipple, and Atwell. All of these 
were sons of Brown, save Robbins, and he — a gradu- 
ate of Yale — was Brown's third tutor. Burges and Bur- 
rill were also Chief Justices of the Supreme Court of 
the state, and other graduates in this early period who 
held that office were Thomas Arnold, James Fenner, 
Samuel Eddy, Job Durfee, Richard W. Greene, Wil- 
liam R. Staples, Samuel Ames, and George A. Brayton. 
Many others served in Congress or in the state legis- 
lature. But the fruitage of the college work was by no 
means for Rhode Island alone. There were Andrew 
Pickens, Governor of South Carolina ; Marcus Morton, 
Governor of Massachusetts ; Jared W. Wilhams, Gov- 
ernor of New Hampshire; and James Tallmadge, orator 
and statesman of New York. Dwight Foster and John 
Holmes represented Massachusetts, and John Ruggles 
represented Maine, in the United States Senate. There 
were Chief Justices Jabez Bo wen, of Georgia, Ezekiel 
Whitman, of Maine, and Asa Aldis, of Vermont; and 
Associate Justices Theron Metcalf and Charles E. 
Forbes, of Massachusetts. In legal literature Joseph K. 
Angell and Samuel Ames won high place. In the broad 
fields of international law and diplomacy, there were 
Jonathan Russell, of the class of 1 791 , one of the Com- 
missioners who negotiated the Treaty of Ghent ; Henry 
Wheaton,of the class of 1 8 02, authority on international 
law; and William L. Marcy, of the class of 1808, Jus- 

C 176 ] 



Historical Address 

tice of the Supreme Court of New York, United States 
Senator, Governor, Secretary of War, and most distin- 
guished as Secretary of State. And in the forefront of 
those who have given their Uves in intelhgent endeavor, 
as well as in unselfish devotion, we must place Horace 
Mann, of the class of 1 8 1 9, who, vindicating the princi- 
ple that " the property of the commonwealth is pledged 
for the education of all of its youth," securely established 
the standards of efficient public instruction, and Sam- 
uel Gridley Howe,of the class of 1821, one of the most 
illustrious knights of American philanthropy. 

Such is the record of this initial period. While I thus 
mention the names of some of the more renowned, with 
emphatic recognition of their achievements, it must not 
be forgotten that the college is honored not simply 
in the few but in the many, — in the hundreds of those 
who in less prominent, but still important, places have 
brought to the intimate relations of a responsive people 
the stimulating influence of disciplined minds. The old- 
fashioned college was a place for study, — where intel- 
lectual interests and ideals were ever kept foremost; 
and the manifold activities of a later day, many of them 
wholesome and some distracting, were yet unknown. 
We note in the early laws at Brown that the student 
hours between the fall and spring vacations were " from 
morning prayers one hour before breakfast, and from 
9 o'clock a.m. until 1 2 o'clock ; from 2 o'clock p.m. until 
sunset; and from 7 until 9 o'clock in the evening;" — 
requirements which the college officers were supposed 
to enforce by personal supervision. The Faculty was 
small, most of the instruction being given by the Presi- 
dent, one or two resident professors, and a couple of 
tutors. In the restricted environment of the academic 

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family lay not only the danger of a lifeless routine, but 
also precious opportunities for the inspiring influence of 
rare spirits, whether teachers or students. The impor- 
tance of the tutor's work should not be overlooked ; and 
we may apply to the tutors of Brown what was said by 
Chancellor Kent as to those of Yale : " The tutors in 
every period of the College history have been very effi- 
cient instructors, and though many of them have been, 
at the time, to 'Fortune and to Fame unknown,' yet 
it is certain that the College has been much indebted 
for the elevation of the standard of moral sentiment, for 
the cultivation of correct taste, and for the formation of 
some of the most illustrious of its pupils, to the diligent, 
steady, painful and unobtrusive counsel and efforts of 
that meritorious class of teachers." Brown's first tutor, 
— and firstprofessor after Manning, — the distinguished 
David Howell, became a member of the Continental 
Congress, Judge of the Superior Court of Rhode Island, 
and for many years was a Federal judge. Ashur Rob- 
bins, the third tutor, long served as United States Sen- 
ator; and in addition to Maxcy and Messer, we find in 
the list of early tutors the names of Jeremiah Chaplin, 
Calvin Park, for twenty-one years professor at Brown, 
Solomon Peck, professor at Amherst, Jasper Adams, 
and Horace Mann. We must also not fail to consider the 
use, made by students of initiative and ambition, of the 
opportunities for collateral reading. It was in these self- 
directed efforts that the brightest minds of other days 
largely found their substitute for the advantages of the 
modern curriculum. In wide reading, suited to their 
individual taste, and prosecuted with the zeal of a dis- 
coverer, the leaders of the future not infrequently had 
their intellectual awakening. There was scant regard 
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Historical Address 

paid to History and the Law of Nations when Henry 
Wheaton studied here. But one of his classmates thus 
described his early labors : " To be able to construe and 
parse Virgil, Cicero, Horace, and a little of the Greek 
Testament seemed to be the main object of most of 
the college students of that period. Not so with young 
Wheaton. Though he did not positively neglect these 
tasks, yet his intense passion for historical and general 
knowledge seemed to absorb all the other objects and 
purposes of life. It manifested itself at an early period 
of his collegiate course." Ancient and modern historians 
" were read and re-read with the same intense interest 
that ordinary readers bestow upon the historic novels 
of Scott and Cooper. France and her history, the people 
of France and their struggles for republican freedom, 
were subjects which he so frequently discussed while 
in college that he was usually called 'citizen' Whea- 
ton. ... He instinctively launched out upon the great 
ocean of thought." There was also from the outset es- 
pecially effective work in the training of public speak- 
ers, which was reinforced by the voluntary exercises 
of student societies — the Philermenian and United 
Brothers; and from 1815 to 1828 Rhode Island's popu- 
lar orator, statesman, and jurist, Tristam Burges, was 
professor of oratory. 

With the close of President Messer's administra- 
tion, we come to a turning-point in the college history. 
It was a time of quickening in American colleges, 
and it was the good fortune of Brown during the next 
twenty-eight years— from 1827 to 1855 — to have the 
forceful leadership of Francis Way land,one of thegreat 
prophets of the new era in American education. The 
curriculum here, as in other colleges, was ill-adapted 
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Brown University 

to the demands of an expanding national life. Even in 
the classics it had a narrow range, and in the modern 
languages, English literature, history, economics, and 
especially in the sciences, it was sadly deficient. Said 
Professor Tyler, of Amherst, who was graduated at 
that college in 1830: "Greek, Latin and Mathematics, 
six times a week, with a little natural philosophy at 
the end, and perhaps a little rhetoric and logic in the 
middle, was the curriculum for the first three years, 
and mental and moral philosophy, with a sprinkling of 
theology and political economy, was the course for the 
fourth year. . . . Chemistry, Mineralogy, Geology, 
Zoology, Palaeontology and other ologies had not yet 
begun to distract the minds of students ; and laborato- 
ries, museums, cabinets, collections of natural history, 
were to be the growth of the next half century. "There 
were some diff'erences in arrangement and detail in the 
various institutions, but the general features of the 
curriculum were similar. It should be said that chem- 
istry had been taught in the existing medical schools, 
and that in the latter part of the eighteenth century, and 
at the beginning of the nineteenth, it found a place in 
the courses of collegiate instruction ; but such laborato- 
ries as existed were absurdly inadequate. The study of 
the other sciences came in gradually, with feeble be- 
ginnings. At the end of the second decade of the nine- 
teenth century, economics found a place in the course, 
and history received a larger share of attention. Ger- 
man was introduced into the Harvard curriculum in 
1825. 

At Brown, the courses of instruction had been some- 
what increased under President Messer, and among 
those of the senior year we find Burlamaqui, the 

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Historical Address 

Federalist, and Vattel. Instruction in chemistry had 
been provided in connection with the establishment of 
the medical school. Under Wayland, the classical and 
mathematical studies were enlarged; there were courses 
not only in chemistry, but in mechanics, astronomy, 
animal and vegetable physiology, pneumatics, hydro- 
statics, and geology; and instruction was given in 
junior and senior years in modern languages and 
political economy. It was also in the earlier portion 
of Wayland's administration that a careful effort was 
made to meet the needs of special students, — an ar- 
rangement which developed into an English and Sci- 
entific course adapted to a residence of either one or 
two years. There were great improvements in other 
directions. On his accession Wayland found the philo- 
sophical apparatus to be "almost worthless," save "as 
a collection of antiquarian specimens," and the library, 
as he described it, consisted of books "old, few and 
miscellaneous — such, in general, as had been gleaned 
by solicitation from private libraries, where they were 
considered as of no value." The apparatus was re- 
placed through the benevolence of Nicholas Brown 
and Thomas P. Ives by new equipment which was 
" adapted to all the purposes of illustration ;" and a per- 
manent fund was raised through which an excellent 
library was built up. It was in 1834, to accommodate 
the library and the chapel, that Nicholas Brown gave 
Manning Hall. Seven years after, in order to provide 
for specimens, lecture rooms, and laboratory, Rhode 
Island Hall was erected. At the same time there was 
built a new house for the President at the northwest 
corner of Prospect and College Streets ; and there for 
the next sixty years authority had its official residence 



Brown University 

and students kept a watchful eye upon the movements 
of its occupants. Toward the two buildings last named, 
Mr. Brown gave |i 0,000, and a similar amount was 
subscribed by the citizens of Providence and its vicinity. 
Soon after, the career of this broad-minded merchant 
and eminent patron of the University came to its close. 
His total gifts, including his bequests, amounted to 
$ 1 60,000, but more important than this total, impressive 
indeed in those days, was the timeliness of his benefac- 
tions and the example thus set to other friends of the 
college, both in this community and elsewhere. 

The resident Faculty was increased, so that in the lat- 
ter part of the thirties there were, in addition to the Presi- 
dent, six professors and three tutors. The work of Pro- 
fessors William Giles Goddard and Romeo Elton, who 
had been graduated at Brown under Messer, had begun 
near the close of his administration; and in the early 
years of Wayland they were joined by Alexis Caswell, 
George Ide Chace, William Gammell, and Horatio B. 
Hackett, forming a most distinguished company. After 
Goddard and Elton had retired, James Robinson Boise 
and John Larkin Lincoln became professors. Chace, 
Gammell, Boise, and Lincoln were graduated under 
Wayland, and had already been tutors in the college ; 
and there were other tutors between 1830 and 1850, 
also sons of Brown,whose abilities and character won for 
them noted careers: George Burgess — already named, 
of Messer's last class — and the following, who were 
students of Wayland's time: Mark Antony De Wolfe 
Howe, Bishop of Central Pennsylvania, James Tift 
Champlin, President of Waterville College, Arthur Sav- 
age Train, professor at Newton, Nathan Bishop, one of 
the most influential laymen in the Baptist denomina- 



Historical Address 

tion, Charles Smith Bradley, Chief Justice of the Rhode 
Island Supreme Court and later Professor of Jurispru- 
dence at Harvard, Thomas Allen Jenckes, for many 
years a member of Congress, and Henry S. Frieze, who, 
with Professor Boise, long adorned the faculty of the 
University of Michigan. Could any college be more 
fortunate than to have a Wayland for its president and 
such instructors? 

But to Wayland's prophetic eye the educational 
scheme of the time appeared far from satisfactory. He 
had the vision of democracy and of its educational as 
well as its spiritual needs. He had little patience with 
the fetters of the old curriculum , and was not content 
with such advance as had been made in enlarging the 
scope of college work. The permanent funds in 1849 
remained substantially what they had been in 1827. 
Thenumber of students entering the college, which had 
increased until 1835, had fallen off in later years, and 
he believed that radical action was necessary. His con- 
victions had been ripened not only by the study of colle-^ 
giate conditions in America, but by personal examina- 
tion of methods in England. To the support of liberal 
ideals he brought the force of his dominating person- 
ality; and in 1849, in an intense desire to bring about 
a change, he resigned the presidency. The Corporation 
protested ; and the resignation was withdrawn upon the 
appointment of a committee, as the chairman of which 
he submitted his epoch-making report of 1850. He re- 
viewed the demands of the new era. " Lands were to be 
surveyed, roads to be constructed, ships to be built and 
navigated, soils of every kind, and under every variety 
of climate, were to be cultivated, manufactures were to 
be established, which must soon come into competition 



Brown University 

with those of more advanced nations, and, in a word, 
all the means which science has provided to aid the pro- 
gress of civilization must be employed, if this youth- 
ful republic would place itself abreast of the empires of 
Europe. . . . What could Virgil and Horace and Homer 
and Demosthenes, with a little mathematics and natu- 
ral philosophy, do toward developing the untold re- 
sources of this continent?" The pith of it was that the 
American college had failed to meet the wants of the 
community, and had been proceeding ill-advisedly in 
seeking to meet the new demands by crowding a fixed 
term of four years with a large number of studies of 
which only a smattering could be obtained. His conclu- 
sions were in substance as follows: That the system of 
having a fixed term must be abandoned ; that every stu- 
dent should be allowed within certain limits to carry on 
a greater or less number of courses, as he might choose ; 
that the time allowed to each course should be deter- 
mined by its nature ; that the various courses should be 
so arranged that, so far as practicable, " every student 
might study what he chose, all that he chose, and noth- 
ing but what he chose,"but that the Faculty, at the re- 
quest of parents or guardians, should have authority to 
assign particular studies ; that every course once com- 
menced should be continued to completion ; that no stu- 
dent should be admitted as a candidate for a degree 
unless he had honorably sustained his examination in 
such studies as might be ordained by the Corporation, 
but that no one should be required to proceed to a 
degree unless he chose, every student being entitled to 
a certificate of his proficiency. 

A variety of courses were suggested, and it was 
recommended that the system of instruction should be 
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Historical Address 

modified and extended in the manner indicated, as soon 
as $125,000 should be added to the University funds. 
The money was raised, and the "new system" was 
introduced. The courses, in addition to subjects pre- 
viously taught, embraced didactics, civil engineering, 
the application of chemistry to the arts, and the study 
of agriculture. The last-named course, however, was 
not given. The degree of Bachelor of Philosophy was 
offered, and both this degree and that of Bachelor of 
Arts could be had at the end of three years, while a 
course which could be completed in four years led to the 
degree of Master of Arts. In each course for a degree 
there was some opportunity — although not a wide one 
— for the selection of subjects. The number of students 
rose: there were 283 in 1853-54, but there was a con- 
siderable reduction in later years. The practical courses 
were not as popular as it had been supposed they 
would be. Few students chose them, and the degree of 
Bachelor of Philosophy was not much in demand. 
It became clear that the repute of the University was 
being endangered by the low standard of scholar- 
ship required for the degrees of A.M. and A.B. ; and 
soon after President Way land's retirement in 1 855, the 
former was restored to the position it had formerly held 
and four years were required for the degree of Bachelor 
of Arts. But, despite some disappointments which at- 
tended the introduction of the new system, a principle 
was involved which could not fail to have extended 
application in the development of our educational meth- 
ods, and its emphatic indorsement by Wayland has 
had a permanent influence. Plainly it was not Way- 
land's intention to dispense with strict discipline. An 
indefatigable worker, he desired to inculcate habits of 
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Brown University 

thoroughness, and to enrich as well as to extend the 
courses of instruction. At the very beginning of his 
administration he had insisted that the officers should 
" be actual residents within the walls of the college" in 
order to insure proper supervision; and text-books, ex- 
cept in the languages, were not allowed in the recita- 
tion rooms. His intense desire was to increase the ser- 
vice of the institution to the community, and almost his 
last words — at the one hundredth anniversary of the 
college — expressed this thought: "I hope that you, 
gentlemen, may see these views familiar as household 
words to the whole civilized world, so that every semi- 
nary of higher education shall scatter broadcast, over 
the whole community, over every rank and every class, 
over every profession and every occupation in life, the 
benefits of knowledge and the blessings of religion." 
Wayland's keen and vigorous intellect, his strength 
of will, his tremendous energy, his profound religious 
convictions, the constant display of his masterfulness, 
left a lasting mark upon the character of his pupils. 
There was undoubtedly an imperiousness, which at 
times kindled opposition ; but there was also the inevita- 
ble response of youth to the quickening of the master 
mind. Approximately one-third of the graduates under 
Wayland entered the ministry, — a larger proportion, I 
believe, than at any other period in the college history, 
— and there was an especially striking contribution to 
education. I may mention, in addition to those already 
named, Ezekiel Oilman Robinson, the seventh presi- 
dent of Brown, and Samuel Stillman Greene, Albert 
Harkness, Robinson Potter Dunn, John W. P. Jenks, 
and Jeremiah Lewis Diman, of the Brown Faculty; 
Ebenezer Dodge, President of Colgate; Heman Lin- 



Historical Address 

coin, professor at Newton; Henry G. Weston, Presi- 
dent of Crozer ; Francis Way land, Dean of the Yale Law 
School ; James P. Boyce, President of the Southern Bap- 
tist Theological Seminary ; George Park Fisher, pro- 
fessor in the Yale DivinitySchool; James Burrill Angell, 
President of the University of Michigan, who for eight 
years was a professor at Brown; James O. Murray, 
Dean of Princeton College; Edward H. Magill, Presi- 
dent of Swarthmore; Alexander Burgess, Bishop of 
Quincy; and George Dana Boardman, preacher and 
writer. There were Governors John Henry Clifford, of 
Massachusetts ; Samuel Coney, of Maine ; Elisha Dyer, 
Henry B. Anthony, and Augustus O. Bourn, of Rhode 
Island; and Pendleton Murrah, of Texas. Henry B. 
Anthony sat in the United States Senate for twenty- 
five years, and other graduates of Wayland's time in 
that body were Lafayette S. Foster, of Connecticut, and 
Samuel Greene Arnold, of Rhode Island, — the historian 
of the state. There were Chief Justices Marcus Mor- 
ton, of Massachusetts, Franklin J. Dickman,of Ohio, and 
Thomas Durfee, of Rhode Island. And to this partial 
roll of distinction may be added Benjamin F. Thomas, 
Associate Justice of the Supreme Judicial Court of Mas- 
sachusetts; Samuel Sullivan Cox, for twenty-two years 
in the United States House of Representatives ; William 
Goddard, Trustee of Brown for fifty years and its Chan- 
cellor for nineteen years ; Rowland Hazard, Trustee for 
fourteen years, and Fellow for nine years; Edward L. 
Pierce, the biographer of Charles Sumner; and Alex- 
ander Lyman Holley, engineer. 

Following the administration of Wayland, the presi- 
dencies of Barnas Sears ( 1855-1867) and Alexis Cas- 
well (1868-1872) were marked by substantial prog- 
C 187 : 



Brown University 

ress. President Sears was a man of deep learning, and 
his executive ability had been tested by his work as 
Horace Mann's successor in the Massachusetts Board 
of Education. It was a period of necessary adjustments 
at Brown, in order to maintain suitable standards and 
at the same time to continue the offers of practical 
courses. Then there arose the sad and serious dis- 
turbances of the Civil War. Brown, like other colleges, 
gave of her best to the support of the Union ; and stu- 
dents and graduates enlisted in large numbers. Despite 
the strain of the struggle. President Sears secured a 
large increase in productive funds; and with the further 
gain under President Caswell — whose brief adminis- 
tration crowned forty years of service as professor — 
these funds reached a total of over $600,000. The early 
part of this period will ever be memorable in our 
annals as the time when there went forth from these 
halls Richard Olney ,of the class of 1 856, and John Hay, 
of the class of 1858, — two great Secretaries of State. 
Among other graduates under President Sears — if I 
may venture a selection from so many eminent names 
— were Nathaniel P. Hill, of the class of 1 856, teacher 
at Brown and United States Senator from Colorado; 
Robert Hale Ives Goddard, of 1858, who for twenty- 
one years has been a member of the Board of Fellows ; 
William Wilhams Keen, of 1859, eminent in surgery, 
for twenty-two years a Trustee, and nineteen years a 
Fellow; Henry Kirke Porter, of i860. Fellow for fif- 
teen years ; Arnold Buffum Chace, of 1 866, Trustee for 
thirty-eight years and our present Chancellor; and 
Robert H. Thurston, of 1859, and Elmer L. Corthell, 
of 1867, distinguished in engineering. The class of 
i86i gave to Rhode Island three Chief Justices in 

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Historical Address 

Charles Matteson, John Henry Stiness, and William 
Wilberforce Douglas. Charles W.Lippitt, who became 
Governor, was graduated in 1 865, and Nathan Fellows 
Dixon, who went to the United States Senate, was in 
the class of 1869. From the classes of i860 to 1865 
there entered the ministry Adoniram Judson Gordon, 
Wayland Hoyt, Henry Sweetser Barrage, Josiah N. 
Cushing, and Edward Judson. To the Brown Faculty 
came Timothy Whiting Bancroft, of the class of 1859; 
Benjamin F. Clarke and John Howard Appleton, of 
1863; William Whitman Bailey, of 1864; and William 
Carey Poland, of 1868. And the class of 1870 gave to 
the University Alonzo Williams, Nathaniel F. Davis, 
Wilfred H. Munro, and Elisha Benjamin Andrews. 

When Brown had completed one hundred years, her 
graduates — excluding those holding advanced and hon- 
orary degrees — numbered 2184. They now number 
6843. At the Centennial Anniversary, President Sears 
thus reviewed the past: "The number of the Faculty, 
consisting, at first, of but one or two, has increased to 
ten. Instead of the one college edifice of the days of 
Manning and of Maxcy, we have five. The Library 
of five hundred miscellaneous books . . . has grown to 
thirty thousand choice volumes in the best of order." 
Now, there are 109 on the teaching and administrative 
staff"; the college buildings, instead of being five — or 
six, including the President's house, — are thirty; and 
the library of 30,000 volumes in President Sears's day 
has become — with its many special collections — a li- 
brary of 210,000, exclusive of the John Carter Brown 
Library, which has 35,000 volumes. 

This extraordinary growth is familiar to us all ; it has 
taken place under the eyes of those still in the strength 

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Brown University 

of middle life. For the most part, it is the gain of the 
past twenty-five years. But before that, there were sev- 
enteen years under President Robinson (1872-1889) 
of earnest, driving effort, when needs were clearly de- 
fined and important advances were made. I cannot speak 
of the teachers of this period without expressing a pro- 
found sense of personal obligation. President Robinson 
himself — majestic and severe — seemed to incarnate the 
moral law. It matters little what system of philosophy 
he favored ; the permanent lesson that he taught was 
the obligation of manhood. He despised cant and hated 
sham. He shook youth out of carelessness and indiffer- 
ence into a realization of individual responsibility and 
power; and the student went forth from his instruction 
with a new birth of purpose and courage, listening to 
the inner voice: 

" When Duty whispers lozv, Thou must, 
The youth replies^ I can." 

Professor Diman was fascinating in his exhibition of 
intellectual mastery. His unusual acumen, lucidity, can- 
dor, and breadth of vision, his rhetorical skill, which 
gained its effects without sacrifice of accuracy or sin- 
cerity, — his native dignity, and entire freedom from ec- 
centricity and affectation, — made him a prince of teach- 
ers. One was not left in a state of idle admiration, — as 
a spectator of a brilliant performance, — but was stimu- 
lated to the highest pitch of effort, and heroic endeav- 
ors in individual research supplemented the attractive 
labors of the class-room. Lincoln and Harkness, the 
great exponents of the classics, — it is difficult to think 
of Brown without them, — were in the full maturity of 
their powers. Who can forget the gracious personality 

C 190 J 



Historical Address 

and unflagging interest of Harkness ; or the winning 
smile which illumined the face of Lincoln , whose rare 
spirit admitted us to the most delightful fellowship, as 
with keen analysis and exquisite sensibility he opened 
to us the treasures of classic literature. I wish that I 
might speak with particularity of others; but it must 
suffice to say that during the Robinson administra- 
tion, an exceptionally able group of teachers laid the 
foundations for the broader work in which the college 
was to engage in the coming years. When vacancies 
occurred, men of power were appointed to fill them. 
Courses of instruction and opportunities for scientific 
work were largely extended; six professorships and 
two assistant professorships were created. Standards 
were raised ; the range of electiveswas increased; grad- 
uate work was encouraged and began to assume im- 
portance. The physical equipment was much improved. 
The benevolence of friends gave to the University 
a new library building. Slater Hall, and Sayles Hall, 
which were completed, in swift succession, between 
the years 1878 and 1881. University Hall was reno- 
vated; and before the end of Robinson's time, Wilson 
Hall was in the course of erection, the Lyman gift had 
been received, and the Ladd Astronomical Observatory 
had been offered. Strong and progressive as was this 
administration, the number of students at its close, in 
1889, was only 268. The number in attendance last 
year was 976. As many have been graduated with the 
first degree, in the past twenty-five years, as in the pre- 
ceding one hundred and twenty-five years. 

Following President Robinson, there came to the 
leadership of the University a man of extraordinary 
force and popularity. No president or teacher at Brown 
[ 191 J 



Brown University 

has ever had greater power over young men than had 
President Andrews ; they made instant response to the 
appeal of his commanding virility. Numbers grewapace; 
and each year showed a remarkable gain, until, in the 
year 1896-97, there were 914 students taking the reg- 
ular examinations of the University, and there were 
enrolled 90 instructors and other officers. In the suc- 
ceeding year, the last under President Andrews, there 
was a decrease in the number of students, but the total 
still reached 866. Of these, 101 were graduate students, 
and 149 were undergraduate women, — students in 
the Women's College, which had been established in 
1 891 , and for which Pembroke Hall had been provided 
in 1897. This sudden growth was a tremendous strain 
upon the facilities of the University. Early in the admin- 
istration of President Andrews, the new physics labora- 
tory ( Wilson Hall) was completed ; the Lyman Gym- 
nasium and the Ladd Observatory were built; and 
Hope College was improved. A few years later, Maxcy 
Hall provided additional dormitory accommodations. 
There had been a notable enlargement of the cur- 
riculum, and of the teaching staff, which had brought to 
Brown new men of first-rate ability; and the strength 
of the departments of instruction matched the remark- 
able growth in numbers. But there had been little addi- 
tion to the endowment. It had grown to nearly a mil- 
lion dollars under President Robinson, and the gain 
under President Andrews brought the University funds 
to only a little over $1,125,000. The increased income 
from tuition fees did not meet the added expenses; the 
teaching staff was inadequately paid; and an extension 
of the University plant and a greatly enlarged endow- 
ment were imperatively needed. 
t 192 n 



Historical Address 

Within the past fifteen years, under President Faunce, 
these wants have in large measure been suppUed. 
The urgent call for aid met with an early and gener- 
ous response. In 1900, the endowment gained a mil- 
lion dollars, and another million in 1901, — which in- 
cluded the John Carter Brown Library Fund. In 1912, 
a third million was contributed to the University funds; 
these now amount to ^4,466,243.92 — the increase 
during the present administration being almost three 
times the total endowment secured in the one hun- 
dred and thirty-five previous years of the University 
life. The Administration Building; Rockefeller Hall; 
the Engineering Building ; Caswell Hall ; the Colgate 
Hoyt swimming pool ; the improvement of University 
Hall; the gymnasium of the Women's College, and 
Miller Hall, its residence building; the Marston Field 
House, erected on Andrews Field, are all gifts and 
additions of recent years meeting important needs. 
The John Carter Brown Library building houses a col- 
lection of inestimable value to the students of Ameri- 
can history. Three years ago, the completion of the 
John Hay Library gave us one of the most attractive 
and well-appointed library buildings in the country, — 
a lasting memorial to one of America's greatest states- 
men. During this period, the campus has been adorned 
by the erection of the Van Wickle Gates, the Carrie 
Tower, and other memorial structures. The work of 
improvement still continues, and at this moment the 
new Arnold Biological Laboratory is in course of con- 
struction. These advances evidence sagacious leader- 
ship, the earnest cooperation of the members of the 
Corporation, the deep interest of the alumni, and the 
generosity of many friends. 

C 193 ] 



Brown University 

Courses of instruction have been multiplied until 
there are twenty-six main groups with 576 subdivi- 
sions, including increased provision for advanced and 
graduate work. The quality of the teaching of the Fac- 
ulty, I believe, has never been better; and it is particu- 
larly gratifying to be able to record the fact that pro- 
vision has been made for protecting the future of our 
teachers by a pension system established by Brown out 
of her own resources. The Women's College has been 
most successful. As was said by President Faunce in his 
report of 1912: "Our Women's College has the same 
Faculty, the same courses of study for a degree, the 
same examinations, the same diploma, as our men's col- 
lege. But its hall of residence and its class-rooms are on 
a separate campus, its instruction has a distinct quality 
due to the separate environment, and its student or- 
ganizations and publications and its entire social life 
are separately organized." In this manner has been 
solved the problem "of providing coordinate instruc- 
tion;" while "in the graduate department at Brown as 
at every American University, men and women meet in 
the same class-rooms and under the same conditions." 

''''Ill fits the abstemious Muse a crown to xueave 
For living- broxvs; ill Jits them to receive.'''' 

The tribute which friendship and esteem would prompt 
must wait the more appropriate utterance of later an- 
niversaries, when the work of the present President 
and Professors of Brown will find its fitting recognition. 
Nor is it possible to describe, even briefly, within the 
limits imposed by this occasion, the countless events of 
interest in our history, the origin and survival of col- 
lege customs, the development of athletics, the growth 

C 194 J 



Historical Address 

of student societies, and the varied activities of the stu- 
dent body. It is fortunate that this anniversary is made 
memorable by the publication of an impartial and com- 
prehensive History portraying the inner life of the Uni- 
versity during its one hundred and fifty years. 

Brown, with fresh vigor and newly equipped, faces 
the widening opportunities of the twentieth century, 
alert and confident.lt has been, and must remain, demo- 
cratic. Probably nowhere are social standards so just 
as in American universities. Snobbery has no place at 
Brown. The young man who is working his way through 
college takes his place to-day, as in earlier times, by the 
side of his classmates who have the apparent advan- 
tages of fortune, and both are esteemed for what they 
are and for what they can do, and not for what they 
have. American youth is wholesome, but it is no small 
part of the duty of the college to maintain the standards 
of true worth which have made the college in so large 
a measure the nursery of the nation's strength. This 
is no place for luxurious idling. We are not desirous of 
supporting a social club for young Philistines. It is grati- 
fying that college halls are crowded, and that Ameri- 
can social life is permeated, perhaps as never before, 
by the influences of university associations. But in this 
time of softer living, when we are exposed to the reac- 
tions of prosperity, and when agreeable diversions are 
multiplied, we must be solicitous to preserve the ancient 
altars, and to insure the continued dominance of intel- 
lectual and spiritual interests. 

Brown has been, and must remain, liberal and non- 
sectarian in its training. Happily, we have witnessed the 
end of the old sectarian antagonisms; but we must ever 
be on our guard in this country against the recrudes- 
ce ^95 H 



Brown University 

cence of bigotry. We shall always have reason to take 
pride in the part this college has had in the emancipa- 
tion of higher education ; in promoting " perfect free- 
dom in religious concernments," while at the same time 
conserving the opportunities for religious culture. We 
must never lose the ideals of Wayland with respect 
to the breadth of the service of higher institutions of 
learning, or fail to remember that the University exists 
for the community and not the community for the Uni- 
versity; and that the constant endeavor should be made 
to adjust the one more perfectly to the needs of the 
other. The roots of Brown are struck deep in Rhode Is- 
land soil. It is not a state institution ; it does not derive 
support from the state, nor is it directed by the state. 
But it has ever had a most intimate relation to the life 
of the people of Rhode Island; about it cluster the mem- 
ories of statesmen and philanthropists — of educators 
and of men of affairs — whose lives have largely made 
the history of both state and University. May we not 
expect that in the future, in the enlarged service of the 
University, — in research, in opportunities for scientific 
and technical training, in the ministry of liberal cul- 
ture, in bringing expert assistance to the expanding 
work of governmental administration, — there will be 
peculiar benefits to Rhode Island, thus making this 
institution, through a wise adjustment and coordina- 
tion, the fitting crown of the educational activities of a 
prosperous people. 

But Rhode Island rejoices that the University is not 
parochial. Its roots are here, but — as with other uni- 
versities — its leaves are for the healing of the nation. 
Its interests are national, and throughout the land its 
graduates to-day are singing its praises and exhibiting 
C 196 ] 



Historical Address 

the results of its training. Wheeler at the University 
of California, Horr at Newton, Mary E. Woolley at 
Mount Holyoke, Meiklejohn at Amherst,and — now — 
Bumpus at Tufts illustrate the range of its influence. 
We need have no misgiving as to the continuance of 
this broad service, with ever-increasing power, if we 
can conserve the sources of its vigorous life. Let us not 
forget that with the multiplication of facts to be taught, 
with the extension of facilities for investigation and 
experiment, with the enlarged provision of laborato- 
ries, shops, and libraries, the greatest of all resources 
must still be found in teachers of vision and inspiration, 
who, while eminent as specialists, in their simple living, 
strength of purpose, and obedience to the higher call, 
open the eyes of youth to the vision of what is best and 
enduring. 

May great spirits continue to irradiate her work, and 
may even larger blessings than those of the past we 
gratefully review fill the coming years of old Brown ! 
We cannot repay our debt to our Mother, — cherish- 
ing and beloved, — but we can remember our obliga- 
tion, and by devotion to her interest we can aid in the 
fulfillment of our wish for her prosperity. Let the sons 
and daughters of Brown continue to attest their loyalty, 
and her future is secure. 



C 197 ] 



Presentation of Delegates 

UPON the conclusion of the Historical Address, 
the delegates from institutions of learning were 
presented to the President and the Chancellor by Pro- 
fessor William MacDonald, George L. Littlefield Pro- 
fessor of American History. Professor MacDonald was 
assisted in the presentation by Professors Potter, Bene- 
dict, Huntington, and Dunning. During the exercises 
the orchestra played the "Salut d'Amour," by Elgar, 
and the " Processional," by Kretschmer. Many of the 
delegates brought congratulatory addresses from the 
institutions represented by them, which they handed to 
President Faunce as they were presented to him. The 
list of delegates from institutions in foreign countries 
was as follows: 

The University of Oxford, the Rt. Rev. Edward Melville 
Parker, Bishop of New Hampshire. 

The University of Cambridge, the Ven. Archdeacon William 
Cunningham, Trinity College, and Professor Frank Morley, 
Johns Hopkins University. 

The University of Glasgow, Professor Norman Kemp Smith, 
Princeton University. 

The University of Edinburgh, Principal William Peterson, 
McGill University. 

The Royal Frederick's University, Christiania, Norway, 
Professor N. Wille. 

The University of London, Dr. Michael Francis O'Reilly, 
Manhattan College. 

The University of Durham, Professor Reinhold Frederich 
Alfred Hoernle, Armstrong College, Newcastle-on-Tyne. 

C 198 J 



Presentation of Delegates 

University of Manchester, Professor John William Cunliffe, 
Columbia University. 

The University of New Zealand, President Richard Cock- 
burn Maclaurin, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

The University of Wales, Principal Sir Harry R. Reichel, 
University College of North Wales. 

The list of delegates from institutions in the United 
States was as follows: 

Harvard University, President Abbott Lawrence Lowell, Pro- 
fessor Frank William Taussig, and Francis Rawle, Esq. 

College of William and Mary, President Lyon Gardiner 

Tyler. 
Yale University, President Arthur Twining Hadley. 
University of Pennsylvania, Provost Edgar Fahs Smith. 
Princeton University, President John Grier Hibben. 

Columbia University, Provost William Henry Carpenter, Pro- 
fessor Arthur Horace Blanchard, and Professor Elijah 
William Bagster-Collins. 

Rutgers College, President William Henry Steele Demarest. 

Dartmouth College, President Ernest Fox Nichols and Pro- 
fessor Frank Arthur Updyke. 

University of the State of New York, President John Huston 
Finley and Hon. Charles Beatty Alexander. 

University of Vermont, President Guy Potter Benton, 

Williams College, President Harry Augustus Garfield. 

Union College, President Charles Alexander Richmond. 

Middlebury College, President John Martin Thomas and 
James M. Gilford, Esq. 

Andover Theological Seminary, President Albert Parker 
Fitch. 

[ 199 3 



Brown University 

Colby College, President Arthur Jeremiah Roberts. 

Allegheny College, President William Henry Crawford. 

General Theological Seminary, Dean Wilford Lash Rob- 
bins. 

Auburn Theological Seminary, President George Black 
Stewart. 

Colgate University, Professor Frank Lucius Shepardson. 

University of Pittsburgh, Chancellor Samuel B. McCormick. 

Amherst College, President Alexander Meiklejohn and Dean 
George Daniel Olds. 

George Washington University, Dean William Allen Wilbur. 

Hobart College, Professor Frank Elbert Watson. 

Trinity College, President Flavel Sweeten Luther. 

Newton Theological Institution, President George Edwin 
Horr. 

Lafayette College, Professor James Waddell Tupper. 

Western Reserve University, Professor Frank Perkins Whit- 
man. 

Denison University, President Clark Wells Chamberlain. 

New York University, Professor Marshall Stewart Brown. 

Wesleyan University, President William Arnold Shanklin. 

Haverford College, President Isaac Sharpless. 

Oberlin College, Professor Philip Darrell Sherman. 

Hartford Theological Seminary, Professor Charles Snow 
Thayer. 

Alfred University, President Boothe Col well Davis. 

Mount Holyoke College, President Mary Emma WooUey 
and Professor John Martyn Warbeke. 

Union Theological Seminary, President Francis Brown. 
i 200 ] 



Presentation of Delegates 

University of Michigan, Professor Herbert Richard Cross. 

Knox College, Professor William Edward Simonds. 

University of Missouri, Professor Jay William Hudson. 

Ohio Wesleyan University, President Herbert Welch. 

BucKNELL University, Professor Frank Ernest Rock wood and 
Professor Enoch Perrine. 

Grinnell College, Professor-Emeritus Jesse Macy. 

College of the City of New York, Professor William Ward 
Browne. 

University of Wisconsin, Dr. Hermon Carey Bumpus and 
Professor Carl Russell Fish. 

University of Rochester, President Rush Rhees. 

Rochester Theological Seminary, Rev. Clarence Augustus 

Barbour. 
Tufts College, Acting-President William Leslie Hooper. 
Washington University, Acting-Chancellor Frederic Alden 

Hall. 
The Polytechnic Institute, Brooklyn, New York, President 

Fred Washington Atkinson. 

Pennsylvania State College, Professor Irving Lysander 

Foster. 
Earlham College, Professor John Dougan Rea. 
University of California, Professor Carl Copping Plehn. 

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, President Richard 
Cockburn Maclaurin and Mr. John Ripley Freeman. 

Vassar College, Professor George Coleman Gow. 
University of Maine, President Robert Judson Aley. 
Worcester Polytechnic Institute, President Ira Nelson Hollis. 
Lehigh University, President Henry Sturgis Drinker. 
Drew Theological Seminary, President Ezra Squier Tipple. 
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West Virginia University, Acting-President Frank B. 
Trotter. 

Massachusetts Agricultural College, President Kenyon Leech 
Butterfield and Professor Edgar Louis Ashley. 

Cornell University, President Jacob Gould Schurman and 
Professor Charles Edwin Bennett. 

Wells College, President Kerr Duncan Macmillan. 

Boston Untverstty, President Lemuel Herbert Murlin. 

SwARTHMORE CoLLEGE, President Joseph Swain. 

Stevens Instttute of Technology, President Alexander Crom- 

bie Humphreys. 
Smtth College, Professor Anna Alice Cutler. 
Colorado College, Professor James Williams Park. 

Wellesley College, President Ellen Fitz Pendleton and Pro- 
fessor Sarah Frances Whiting. 

Johns Hopkins Untversity, President Frank Johnson Goodnow. 

Radcliffe College, President Le Baron Russell Briggs and 
Dean Bertha May Boody. 

Bryn Mawr College, President M. Carey Thomas. 

Case School of Applied Science, President Charles Sumner 
Howe. 

Untverstty of Wyoming, Professor E. Deane Hunton. 

University of Chicago, Professor Gerald Birney Smith and 
Professor John Matthews Manly. 

Rhode Island State College, President Howard Edwards 
and Hon. Zenas Work Bliss. 

Simmons College, President Henry Lefavour and Professor 
Frank Edgar Farley. 

Clark College, President Edmund Clark Sanford. 

Carnegie Instttution of Washington, Dr. John Franklin 
Jameson. 

n 202 ] 



Presentation of Delegates 

Carnegie Institute of Technology, Dean John Hopkins Leete. 

Connecticut College for Women, President Frederick H. 
Sykes. 

After the visiting delegates had been presented, Presi- 
dent Faunce brought the exercises in the meeting- 
house to a close by pronouncing the benediction. The 
academic procession was then reformed and marched 
back to the front campus, where it was dismissed. 



C 203 n 



Concert 

By the Mendelssohn Glee Club 

ON Wednesday evening, fourteenth October, at 
a quarter after eight o'clock, the Mendelssohn 
Glee Club, of New York, gave a complimentary con- 
cert in Infantry Hall, before a large and appreciative 
audience, made up of visiting delegates, members of 
the University, alumni, and other invited guests. The 
active members of the Club who were present and 
assisted in the concert were: 

Mr. Louis Koemmenich , conductor, and Messrs. Jerome R. 
Allen, Howard S. Borden, Horatio J. Brewer, J. Holmes 
Butler, Frank B. Garland, Clifford Cairns, Newcomb B. Cole, 
Frank Croxton, H. E. Distelhurst, George Featherstone, 
Edwin M. Fulton, John T. Gillespie, Wilfred Glenn, W. 
Glasgow Greene, Charles B. Hawley, Hugh Herndon, Fred- 
erick L. Higgins, Dr. Arthur T. Hills, Frank L. Hilton, Jack- 
son C. Kinsey, J. Warren Knapp, Arthur Knox, Louis F. 
Leland, J. E. McGahen, Willard H. MacGregor, William 
W. Mallory, Ferris J. Meigs, Taylor More, Kenneth M. 
Murchison, Charles Olson, Benjamin Prince, Edgar Pouch, 
J. Clark Read, Allan Robinson, George G. Schreiber, Har- 
vey Self, Frederic K. Seward, Charles E. Sholes, Louis 
Morris Starr, Nelson D. Sterling, William Denham Tucker, 
Allen G. Waterous, William J. Whitaker, John Young, Wil- 
liam P. Young. The accompanist was Mr. Charles A. Baker. 

The programme was as follows: 

Part One 

I. Shine Forth, O Day, by Wdnzierl; Would That Life Were 
Endless Sailing, by Storch; Viking Song, by Coleridge- Taylor. 

II. Tenor Solo (Mr. John Young), Cielo e mar (^La Gioconda), 
by Ponchielli. 

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Concert 

III. The Lamp in the West, by Parker; The Flying Dutch- 
man, by Andreae; Huzza ! The Old Fiddler, by Nagler. 

IV. Duet (Mr. John Young and Mr. William D. Tucker) 
(Z,a Boheme), by Puccini. 

Part Two 

I. In Winter, by Kremser; Marietta, by Gall; Suomi's Song, 
by Mayr. 

II. Songs (Mr. Frank Croxton) : She Never Told Her Love 
{Twelfth-Night), by Hayden; The Willow Song {Othello, 
1585 ), from Dallis'' Look Book; Antolycus' Song ( A Winter'' s 
Tale), by Greenhill. 

III. Morning in the Dewy Woods, by Hegar; Vale Caris- 
sima, by Attenhofer; Hymn of Thanksgiving, by Kremser. 



C 205 ] 



The University Address 

and the 

Conferring of Degrees 

ON Thursday forenoon, fifteenth October, in the 
First Baptist Meeting-House, at half after ten 
o'clock, the University Address was delivered by Wil- 
liam Peterson, M.A., LL.D., D.Litt.,C.M.G., Principal 
and Vice-Chancellor of McGill University. President 
Faunce presided. After the address came the confer- 
ring of honorary degrees. 

At nine forty-five o'clock the academic procession 
again formed on the front campus under the direc- 
tion of Chief Marshal Joslin, and marched thence to 
the meeting-house. The order of the procession was the 
same as on Wednesday, except that candidates for 
honorary degrees were placed at the head of the second 
division. 

At the meeting-house, President Faunce offered 
prayer. Fairman's Orchestra played the "Titus" over- 
ture, by Mozart. President Faunce then introduced 
Principal Peterson, whose address follows: 

THE compliment which has been paid to me in 
connection with to-day's proceedings is as wel- 
come as it was unexpected. I am asked to stand for- 
ward as the representative of those who wish you well, 
and to try to find words in which to express what is in 
the hearts of all. 

To what am I to attribute this compliment, which 
I desire in the first place most gratefully to acknow- 
ledge.'' At an unexampled crisis in the world's history, 

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The University Address 

when the horrors of war have rendered difficult even 
the usual means of intercommunication between na- 
tions, I find myself the spokesman for the whole of this 
academic assemblage, and practically one of the com- 
paratively few foreigners who are privileged to be pres- 
ent on this occasion as invited guests. Let me fortify my- 
self with the reflection, and at the same time conciliate 
my hearers with the reminder, that what I have to say is 
not likely at least to sound foreign in your ears ! At such 
university festivals I have often seen the delegates 
divided into two main classes, — European and Ameri- 
can ; and sometimes it has not been altogether easy to 
see where Canada came in. I take your invitation as a 
compliment, in the first place, to the country which I 
have the honor to represent, and which is bound to you 
not only by geographical propinquity, but even more 
closely by the ties of common traditions, kindred ideals, 
and a like destiny. Personally I am not without expe- 
rience of such celebrations. My official apprenticeship 
began just thirty years ago, at the great Edinburgh 
Tercentenary of 1 884, when, by the way, I had already 
been two years a college head. In the interval which has 
elapsed since that date, I have always kept steadily be- 
fore my eyes the gain that accrues to all of us from the 
cultivation of reciprocal relations between the univer- 
sities of difl^erent countries. They rank among the high- 
est expressions of the soul of a people, and nowhere 
ought it to be more possible than it is with them to em- 
phasize, on the spiritual side, the essential identity of our 
common aims and aspirations. The higher education is 
— or rather ought to have been allowed to remain — the 
greatest federating agency at work in the world at the 
present time. Though the picture has been sadly marred 
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Brown University 

by the ruthlessness of contemporary events, we are still 
able to envisage, with Goethe and Matthew Arnold, the 
" whole group of civilized nations as being, for intellec- 
tual and spiritual purposes, one great confederation, 
bound to a joint action and working towards a common 
result." 

What an immense industry this university business 
of ours has become in the course of the last sixty years ! 
In 1856 Harvard had only 320 students: now it has 
6000. And Columbia and Chicago and California are 
each over the 6000 mark, while Cornell and many 
others have just about as many students on their mus- 
ter-rolls. What an army these returns indicate, already 
more or less mobilized, — not at the call of any indi- 
vidual despot, but as volunteers, — on the side of demo- 
cratic progress! It has become fashionable in America 
to go to college, — fashionable both for men and for 
women ; and the next generation, if not our own, should 
see the results in a larger outlook on life, in habits of 
clear, honest, and impartial thinking, in a heightened 
social consciousness, and a lofty purpose of disinterested 
service. 

In the university system of the United States, Brown 
seems to me to stand midway between the large col- 
lege and the small. Both have their advantages, in all 
of which you may be said to share. The large college 
has, in the first place, the stimulus of numbers : the 
greater the student body, the more probability there is 
that individual angles will be rubbed off, and that the 
student will enjoy the bracing influences of a real school 
of life. And in the larger institutions the equipment is 
better, as a rule ; the course more varied ; the teaching 
staff, speaking generally, more distinguished ; and the 

C 208 ;] 



The University Address 

degree a more recognized passport into the various 
avenues of practical life. You share these advantages, 
and, on the other hand, you in Brown are small enough 
to realize the benefits that come from a more intimate 
social life among your students, closer contact with in- 
structors, and a larger measure of solidarity and esprit 
de corps. 

There is general agreement to-day that the aim and 
purpose of a university may be best summarized under 
three heads -.first teaching, second research and investi- 
gation, ^/izV^ influence on the community in which it does 
its work. The first two should go together, for the best 
teaching will always be enlivened and informed by the 
spirit of research and the habit of investigation. It is not 
enough to retail knowledge already acquired, unless you 
can at the same time associate yourself in someway with 
the efforts that are being made to extend the boundaries 
of knowledge. This statement should not be made of 
Science alone, either pure or applied. Other departments 
—such as History, Economics, and Philosophy — have 
shared in the wonderful advances that have been made 
during the time in which your University has been at 
work. Of the sesquicentennial period which we are cele- 
brating to-day, the last fifty years have been, on the 
side of the advancement of learning, the most fruitful 
and the most distinguished. One has only to refer to 
the progress made, for example, in Physics, Chemis- 
try, Biology, Applied Mechanics, science as related to 
commerce and industry. Economics, and Sociology, to 
reahze the fact that we are literally to-day standing on 
the shoulders of our predecessors and seeing further 
than they into the realms of futurity. And there is a 
better idea abroad in the world to-day of the meaning of 
t 209 ] 



Brown University- 
education. Something has been done to correct the error 
to which, especially on this continent, we were only 
too prone, — the fallacy of looking mainly to material 
profit and loss, and of appraising educational results 
in terms of aptitude for commercial and industrial pro- 
duction. Of course we still hear a great deal about the 
importance of what are called "vocational" as com- 
pared with "cultural" subjects. Some people argue as 
though the chief end and aim of education were to qual- 
ify one for making a living instead of for living a life. It 
strikes me that in many centres of the higher education 
we have been too apt to lose sight of the old ideal of a 
" Faculty of Arts." The university must be something 
more than a mere nursery for specialists. We all know 
what it is to have to deal with the uneducated special- 
ist. It is here, as it seems to me, that the smaller col- 
leges, with their more or less fixed curriculum, are hav- 
ing at once their opportunity and their revenge. The 
university must not give up the attempt to define the 
sphere of liberal instruction and culture. Specializa- 
tion is of course one of its most important functions, but 
after all there is no greater service it can render the 
community than that which is implied in turning out, 
year by year, a number of students who have received 
the benefits of a sound and comprehensive education, — 
that is to say, some orientation in a large and enlight- 
ened view of life as a whole, and therefore some im- 
pulse towards filling their own particular places in it in 
a worthy and intelligent manner. When I go back in 
memory to the old days of the Scottish universities, 
one of which, as well as McGill, I have the honor to 
represent here to-day, where the whole student body 
came into contact — albeit in huge, unwieldy, and over- 

C 210 J 



The University Address 

grown classes — with Arts Professors, each of whom 
was a worthy representative of an important and almost 
essential subject, I realize the loss, as well as the gain, 
that has come to us from the revision of our meth- 
ods and standards. Many of our greatest universities 
are now looking round for some corrective to apply 
to what has been described as "haphazardness" in the 
choice of studies. You are probably aware that at some 
of the larger institutions students may graduate with- 
out either classics or mathematics: a return obtained 
a few years ago in regard to one of them showed that 
45 per cent drop classics altogether on entering col- 
lege, and 75 per cent drop mathematics. These time- 
honored subjects are being displaced in favor of stud- 
ies which are described as "more likely to be service- 
able to the actual activities of modern society."! have 
grave doubts about the wisdom of making so large a 
departure from what may be regarded as of perma- 
nent value in the traditional basis of a liberal education. 
Such an education ought not to be a thing of the past 
for those who have the opportunity of acquiring it. For 
them it is attainable within the limits of school and col- 
lege life, provided they do not begin to apply them- 
selves exclusively to some special training in the very 
first year of their academic course. There ought always 
to be some order, some definition, some regulation of 
university studies. Wherever the attitude is adopted 
that is implied in the well-known formula of one sub- 
ject being "as good as another," we are likely, in my 
judgment, to be called on to pay the penalty. The uni- 
versity, so far as concerns what is called its" academic" 
side, will be cut up into segments. Departments will be 
apt to be treated as wholes in themselves rather than 

[ 211 ;] 



Brown University 

in their organic relation to fundamental branches of 
knowledge. 

A college education ought to be a preparation, not 
for a special career, but for the whole after-life. Many 
of us do not command, and never can command, the 
leisure that would enable us fully to satisfy tastes that 
lie outside our daily avocations. But we do not want to 
forget them, or to lose sight of them. For we know 
that if we would avoid that narrowing of the mental 
and intellectual horizon which is generally the penalty ' 
of absorption in some special calling, such tastes and 
such pursuits should be considered valuable in propor- 
tion as they are removed from the environment of our 
daily life. 

A study of the curriculum offered in Brown Uni- 
versity shows that you have sought to effect an adjust- 
ment of these matters, a reconciliation of the interests 
of higher culture on the one hand and those of the sci- 
entific and practical needs of the community on the 
other. The claims of the "humanities" and the "util- 
ities" are not really irreconcilable. Science has made 
great achievements and is destined to accomplish still 
more, not merely on the material side, but also in the 
way of broadening human thought and eliminating su- 
perstition. But this need not blind us to the importance 
of history, philosophy, literature, and art. Science can 
hardly be said to cover all the highest needs of human 
life or to satisfy every human aspiration. It is especially 
incumbent on university institutions to resist the obvi- 
ous temptation that there is to neglect the things of the 
spirit. For when the last bridge has been built and the 
last railway laid down, much will still remain in regard 
to which our eager curiosity will continue to call for 

C 212 2 



The University" Address 

satisfaction. An exclusively scientific and practical uni- 
versity, and still more a commercialized university, 
would be a somewhat one-sided, if not a mean and sor- 
did foundation. Here in Brown it seems to me you are 
wise in not making any large departure from what 
is believed to be of permanent value in the traditional 
curriculum. No doubt you do what you can towards 
providing certain forms of professional education ; but 
you also seek to produce scholars, — scholars and think- 
ers, men eager to join in the search for truth and ready 
to proclaim it fearlessly when found. No institution can 
be in a healthy condition which is not spending a con- 
siderable part of its energies on those subjects "which 
do not offer any preparation for professional life, which 
cannot be converted immediately into wage earning 
products." A true university will always give ever- 
increasing prominence to the various departments of 
highest learning, to those that deal with philosophy 
and history, with the sources of great social and intel- 
lectual movements, with poetry, literature, and the fine 
arts, with the foundation of ethics, personal, social, and 
' national. For as was said at a similar gathering lately 
held elsewhere : " Whatever other classes we have and 
conserve in the land, artisan, agriculturist, trader, 
shipper, railway-builder, or capitalist, there is no one 
among them all who can' contribute to national stabil- 
ity and national honor unless behind and above them 
all alike there is another class, the scholar class, who 
stand not only for ideas but for ideals," — those higher 
standards of human wisdom and conduct which enable 
man to rise to the fullest comprehension of himself and 
of his place in the world around him. 

Even persons of average education are in danger of 
C 213 n 



Brown University 

being considered uncultured, if they are wanting in 
what I may call historical perspective. It is all very well 
to be equipped for living in the present and for dealing 
with the actualities of life. But none of us can altogether 
get away from the past, and we ought not to try. The 
interest of existence need not for any of us be crowded 
into the petty space of our own short years. We should 
know, at least in outline, the story of the movements 
which have brought human civilization to the point at 
which it stands to-day. Only a small gift of historic im- 
agination is needful to enable even those who are not 
professed historians to realize to themselves the onward 
march of human affairs, typified in the three stages 
marked successively by three oceans, the Mediterra- 
nean, the Atlantic, and the Pacific. This will give them 
a vision of what Goethe calls the seamless web woven 
in the "roaring loom of time," — with continuous and 
unbroken threads, stretching from the very dawn of civ- 
ilization and whirling onward to the end. Of all institu- 
tions the modern university is eminently the one which 
can least afford to drop or disparage the past in its for- 
ward movement into the future. It should teach all its 
students, at least in outline, how Greece brought to light 
from the wreck of ancient despotisms a rational freedom 
for mankind, how the Hebrews superadded the idea of 
personal holiness and faith in the goodness of the one 
God, how Rome established her universal system on 
the sure foundation of law and government, and how, 
out of these preexisting elements, European civiliza- 
tion arose and in time overflowed upon this continent. 
All this past belongs to us, and influences us, even un- 
consciously, in all our existence and environment, — in 
history, art, thought, politics, ethics, and religion ; and 
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The University Address 

nothing could be more short-sighted than for us to try- 
to turn our backs upon it, treating it as something out- 
lived and outworn, and destitute therefore of all signifi- 
cance for the life of to-day. 

The plain-dealing busy man of affairs, engrossed in 
the occupation which directly appeals to him, often asks 
what is the value of old history to him. The answer to 
that is that every one is born to-day several thousand 
years old. The present is charged with the past, and it 
is useless to attempt to get away from it. No all-round 
education is possible to-day if it fails to impart to the 
student what I have called a true sense of historical 
perspective. The studies which set before us the unity 
and continuity of history, of human life, and human 
knowledge, are surely among the most valuable of 
their kind. As between such studies and those to which 
we have more recently been indebted for the great 
advances of modern science. Dr. Samuel Johnson held 
the balance evenly, and almost by anticipation, when 
he said," Whatever makes the past, the distant, or the 
future predominate over the present advances us in the 
dignity of thinking beings." The fact is that those who 
speak with contempt of what they call dead studies are 
in danger of not realizing that it is they themselves who 
are — well, not quite alive! 

We must not, as I have said, turn our backs upon the 
past. Here in this New World of ours, this is just what 
practical people, busy about their own immediate con- 
cerns, are apt to do perhaps even more than elsewhere. 
There is a superstition to which our comparative youth 
is particularly liable — the superstition that we have 
made an entirely fresh start. That is what Bacon called 
"the idol of the cave," for us. Inhabitants of a vast con- 
[ 215 H 



Brown University 

tinent of our own, and sheltered as we seem to be, as 
though in an impregnable "citadel free from care," 
from the tragic complexities of the Old World, — the 
source of all we have and are, — we are only too apt to 
congratulate ourselves upon an isolation which might 
easily turn out to be illusory in actual material conse- 
quence as well as narrowing to the range of our out- 
look and sympathies. Old England owed much, and 
please God will continue to owe everything now, to the 
silver-streak, as New England owes much to the broad 
Atlantic. Let New England be on her guard against in- 
heriting the insular lack of imagination which has often 
been found by her parent state a serious drawback to 
the blessings of detachment. Remoteness from strife 
may be dearly purchased by what is apt to go with it to 
the bargain, remoteness from compelling stimulus to 
thought. The world has become one in space. The At- 
lantic counts for little more than the English Channel 
now\That is one of the great achievements of modern 
thought and action. The other is that in time, too, as well 
as in space, the world has become one; the whole pro- 
cess of its evolution through the centuries has emerged 
to plain view as an organic unity. To be truly educated, 
one must be a freeman of the Universal City which is 
one not only over all the earth, but also in all the suc- 
cessive epochs of its history throughout the ages. 

And whatever thesphereof our special study may be, 
— whether it be literary or scientific, social, artistic, or 
philosophical, — the thing of most supreme importance 
is the spirit in which it is carried on. Truth and the love 
of truth ought to be our watchword. Some material is, 
of course, as Aristotle would have said, more fluid than 
others, and it is harder in dealing with it to get down 
C 216 ] 



The University Address 

to bed-rock. That is why religion and politics are often 
barred from ordinary conversation, and from the dis- 
cussions of clubs and debating societies. But here, too, 
as everywhere else, it ought not to be difficult to apply 
the supreme test of intellectual sincerity. We should be 
able to bring to bear on political history, for exam- 
ple, — even on contemporary events, — the patient col- 
lection of individual facts, the broader generalizations 
that connect them, the elimination of all previous pre- 
judice and bias, and the dispassionate temper which 
Darwin and his fellow workers have applied to the pur- 
suit of natural science. Perhaps the profession of faith 
once eloquently uttered by M. Gaston Paris will bear 
to be quoted once more in this connection: 

" I profess absolutely and without reserve this doc- 
trine, that the sole object of science is truth, and truth 
for its own sake, without regard to consequences, good 
or evil, happy or unhappy. He who, through patriotic, 
religious, or even moral motives, allows himself in 
regard to the facts which he investigates, or the con- 
clusions which he draws from them, the smallest dis- 
similation, the slightest variation of standard, is not 
worthy to have a place in the great laboratory where 
honesty is a more indispensable title to admission than 
ability. Thus understood, common studies, pursued in 
the same spirit in all civilized countries, form — above 
restricted and too often hostile nationalities — a.grande 
patrie which is stained by no war, menaced by no 
conqueror, and where our souls find the rest and com- 
munion which was given them in other days by the 
City of God." 

What I described as the third of the main functions 
of a university — that of influencing the community in 
I 217 ] 



Brown University 

which it works — has an obvious application to the cir- 
cumstances of the University which I have the honor 
to address. From small beginnings you have grown 
with the growth of this large centre of population, with 
which it is at once your duty and your interest to cul- 
tivate the closest possible relations. For from such re- 
lations much benefit may be derived by both. In the 
United States no influence has ever been permitted to 
obscure the view that it is for the interest of the com- 
munity at large that each member of it shall be able 
to claim full opportunity for the development of the 
talents with which nature has endowed him, to the 
end that he and his fellows may reap the benefit of 
their proper exercise. It is an interesting feature in the 
growth also of English democracy that the largest in- 
dustrial centres have insisted — practically within the 
last generation^on having each a university of its own. 
In England the civic university is, in fact, a new birth of 
these latter days. If any one is in doubt as to the expla- 
nation of this phenomenon, he has only to ask himself 
what such a city as this would be without its University. 
It would, of course, be great in commerce and indus- 
try, in manufacturing enterprise and material prosper- 
ity; but it would lack the institution which is the cen- 
tralized expression of its aspirations after things that 
are higher than these, and which enables it to rank with 
world-famous centres of learning. In Manchester and 
Birmingham and Liverpool and Leeds the local insti- 
tution is an object of civic pride, and systematic efforts 
are made, even to the extent in some cases of an addi- 
tion to the rates, to secure that adequate resources shall 
be forthcoming for its maintenance and development. 
It is recognized that the university will give back to 



The University" Address 

the community, in ever-growing measure, as much at 
least as it receives from it. For not only does it increase 
and enhance local prestige and dignity, but it guaran- 
tees equality of educational opportunity to all who are 
born within its sphere of influence. And it helps to en- 
large the number of those who are the best products 
of busy and populous centres — the men of affairs,many 
of whom I am glad to know that Brovsnn counts among 
her supporters, — men who, while strenuously engaged 
in their special avocations, yet feel the impulse to cul- 
tivate other tastes and interests. Surely these men, 
whether they can or cannot boast a university degree, 
are among the most effective members of modern so- 
ciety. 

It is a duty in this connection, as well as a melan- 
choly satisfaction, to recognize the debt which England 
and her over-sea dominions owe to a great imperial 
statesman who passed away in July of the present year. 
In addition to the distractions of an arduous political 
career, in the course of which he succeeded as Colonial 
Secretary in making the British Empire more conscious 
of itself than it had ever been before, the late Mr. Joseph 
Chamberlain adorned in the later years of his life the 
high office of Chancellor of the University of Birming- 
ham, and along with its Principal, Sir Oliver Lodge, did 
much to stamp a new civic character not only on that 
institution but also on others which sprang up to rival 
it in the great centres of English commercial life and 
industry. Throughout his career Birmingham held the 
main place in Mr. Chamberlain's affections. His con- 
nection with the South African War seemed for a time 
to endanger his reputation in the judgment of those 
who somewhat crudely imagined that it was under- 
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Brown University 

taken solely for the purpose of enabling an effete mon- 
archy to crush a group of free republics : with a section 
of French-Canadian opinion, for example, " Chamber- 
lainisme" is an equivalent for jingoism and militarism, 
and flag-waving, and imperial overlordship. And his 
policy of preferential trade was not popular with a large 
portion of his fellow countrymen, any more than it 
was with foreign nations, like Germany, for example, 
which, instead of being grateful for the privilege of 
free admission to British markets, is even now fatuously 
seeking to prove that a mean and petty commercial 
jealousy has been the mainspring of British policy at the 
present crisis! But nothing ever impaired the esteem 
in which Mr. Chamberlain was held as a great repre- 
sentative of the value of municipal institutions. It was 
in the council room of the Birmingham City Hall that he 
served the apprenticeship which fitted him afterwards 
to rise to some of the highest offices of state. And he 
never ceased to labor in the faith of an inspiring ideal, — 
the ideal of a "self-supporting community with stately 
and beneficent public institutions and a dignified public 
life, — not dependent on London for picture galleries, 
museums and libraries, or on Oxford and Cambridge 
for the best educational facilities, but in all things com- 
plete in itself." ("Times," July 7, 1914.) 

The hope of the world to-day is in an educated and 
enlightened democracy such as Mr. Chamberlain strove 
to create in Birmingham. That is why we do rightly in 
regarding preparation for citizenship and the public ser- 
vice as the best basis of much of our work in the realm 
of higher education. Democracy needs leadership, and 
no matter what course a student may pursue, his univer- 
sity training will not have done much for him if it fails 

C 220 J 



The University Address 

to make him more fit than he would otherwise have 
been to lead his fellow-men, and to play a useful and 
a creditable part in the conduct of public affairs. Light 
and leading — those are the elements which we must call 
on our universities to supply. In these dark days it might 
almost seem out of place to attempt to show that it is 
to enlightened self-government we must look, not only 
for the conditions of municipal well-being and national 
prosperity, but also for good-will in international rela- 
tions. Only a short year ago Viscount Haldane,the Lord 
Chancellor of England, in his address on "Higher 
Nationality," delivered before the American Bar As- 
sociation, was sanguine enough to speculate on the 
growth among nations of a habit of looking to common 
ideals " sufficiently strong to develop a General Will, 
and to make the binding power of these ideals a reliable 
sanction for their obligations to each other." Lord Hal- 
dane took the German word Sittlichkeit to illustrate his 
meaning, defining it as the system of habitual or cus- 
tomary conduct, ethical rather than legal, which em- 
braces all those obligations of the citizens which it is 
" bad form " or "not the thing" to disregard. He could 
not, unfortunately, make such an address to-day. For 
in Europe all prospect of international Sittlichkeit has 
been put far from this generation, at least, by a deliber- 
ately planned outbreak of the traditional barbarism that 
looks to conquest and the waging of successful war as 
the main instrument and aim of the highest statesman- 
ship. In place of the Sittlichkeit that was to lead nations 
to act towards each other as " gentlemen "has been sub- 
stituted Furchtharkeit — " frightfulness." Perhaps you 
will say the time has not arrived for rendering full and 
final judgment on the question of responsibility for 

I 221 H 



Brown University 

the European debacle ; and in any case this would hardly 
be an appropriate occasion. But one may safely say in 
the meanwhile that no class of citizen is better qualified 
than the members of our universities to pronounce at 
least a provisional verdict. They are fully competent 
to assist in forming that public opinion on which de- 
mocracy depends for guidance. An appeal has lately 
been addressed to the universities of the United States 
in the spirit of academic brotherhood by certain repre- 
sentatives of a German university who seem to hope 
that you can be brought to believe that the only one of 
the belligerents that did nothing to occasion the out- 
break of the present war, — the only one, on the con- 
trary, who did everything in her power to prevent it, 
— was Germany ! I do not propose to take advantage 
of this opportunity for any sort of counter-appeal, 
though it might be pertinent to ask who it was that re- 
fused arbitration in connection with the original quarrel 
between Austria and Servia .'' The various Peace Soci- 
eties of the American continent should certainly make 
their voices heard in regard to that, if they desire to be 
considered in any sense effective agencies, with a real 
influence on public thought. My contribution to the dis- 
cussion will consist of only one statement, which shall 
be made in illustration of my argument, that the main 
need of the world to-day is a further advance in the 
direction of enlightened self-government. This Euro- 
pean war has not been altogether, as we are apt to think 
in America, an affair of Emperors and Cabinets. When 
one of the belligerents, whom I proudly claim here to 
represent, had most reluctantly to say the fateful word, 
— after delaying almost to the verge of weakness in a 
matter where it was obvious all along that the binding 

C 222 ;] 



The University Address 

character of international contracts would come to be 
concerned, — it was not through her King, or even her 
Foreign Secretary, that that word was spoken: no, it 
was the representatives of the people, assembled in the 
mother of Parliaments, that voted a war credit with 
practical unanimity, and their action in what was put 
to them as a matter of national duty and honor has re- 
ceived the heartiest possible indorsement not only of 
their English constituents, but also of men of every kind 
of f)olitical persuasion throughout all the dominions 
of the British Empire. That is government by demo- 
cracy, and considering the character of parliamentary 
representation in England, and the system of ministe- 
rial responsibility not to the individual ruler but to the 
elected representatives of the people, one may assert 
confidently that the action of the national executive in 
going to war on behalf of Belgium was as much a di- 
rect act of the British nation as it could have been under 
your republican constitution. As to the issue, may God 
defend the right! 

The reference which I have ventured to make has 
not, I hope, been too startling a reminder that univer- 
sities, while mainly concerned with handing on the 
heritage of the past, cannot ignore current history. In 
former days they stood perhaps too far apart from the 
life and interests of the democracy. They were apt to 
be regarded as mere academic ornaments. Now they 
have the opportunity of influencing every department 
of national existence, by bringing their moral and intel- 
lectual equipment to bear on the work of moulding the 
mind and character of the youth of the land, by apply- 
ing a lofty idealism to the concrete interests of real 
life, and in this way training for leadership in the pub- 

C 223 ] 



Brown University 

lie service. Brown University is well qualified to take 
part in this common effort. It has had a distinguished 
past, and it looks forward to a future full of promise, 
— a future that will more than justify the hopeful prog- 
nostications expressed in his eloquent peroration by 
the orator of yesterday. On all its members the stimu- 
lus and inspiration of this anniversary celebration may 
be expected to exercise a healthful and an invigorating 
influence. It lies with them to make their University 
ever more and more living and active: to enable it to 
"go from strength to strength." Let me conclude by 
reminding them, in words once used by the Prime Min- 
ister of England, — whose able management of public 
affairs at a great crisis of his country's history has taken 
nothing away from his keen interest in scholarship and 
literature, — that a university "will be judged in the 
long run not merely or mainly by its success in equip- 
ping its pupils to outstrip their competitors in the crafts 
and professions. It will not be fully judged even by the 
excellence of its mental gymnastic or its contributions 
to scholarship and science. It will be judged also by 
the influence which it is exerting upon the imagination 
and the character; by the ideals which it has implanted 
and nourished; by the new resources of faith, tenacity, 
aspiration, with which it has recruited and reinforced 
the untrained and undeveloped nature ; by the degree 
in which it has helped to raise, to enlarge, to enrich, to 
complete the true life of man, and by and through him 
the corporate life of the community." 

At the conclusion of the address, the orchestra played 
" Morning" from the Peer Gynt Suite, by Grieg. The 
honorary degrees were then conferred by President 

Z 224 ] 



The Conferring of Degrees 

Faunce. The degree of Doctor of Laws was first given 
to the presidents of the six American Colleges, — Har- 
vard, William and Mary, Yale, College of New Jersey 
( Princeton ) , King's ( Columbia ) , and the University of 
Pennsylvania, — as they were founded before Brown 
University. President Arthur Twining Hadley, of Yale 
University, and President Nicholas Murray Butler, of 
Columbia University, were given degrees in absentia, 
as they were prevented from coming in person to re- 
ceive them. The candidates were severally presented to 
President Faunce by Walter Goodnow Everett, Ph.D., 
Professor of Philosophy and Natural Theology. Each 
candidate was escorted to the platform by a member of 
the Faculty, and invested with the appropriate academic 
hood as the degree was conferred. The list of candidates 
with the degree given, together with the characteriza- 
tion of each by President Faunce, follows: 

Doctor of Laws 

Nicholas Mueray Butler, teacher, editor, executive, apply- 
ing with rare skill philosophical principles to education and 
to government. 

Andrew Carnegie, organizer of industry, leader in philan- 
thropy, consistent and tireless advocate of international ar- 
bitration and the federation of the world. 

Le Baron Bradford Colt, experienced and learned judge, 
carrying judicial temper and training into halls of legis- 
lation. 

Howard Edwards, head of a sister institution, disseminating 
knowledge of practical arts throughout our state. 

Stephen Ostrom Edwards, skilled interpreter of the law, pub- 
lic servant without public ofl&ce, trusted counselor of the 
University. 

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Brown University 

Frank Johnson Goodnow, recently adviser to an awakened 
empire, now returning as leader of a university to which all 
American colleges are happily in debt. 

Arthur Twining Hadley, scholar, educator, and publicist, 
uniting the world of scholarship with the world of action. 

John Grier Hibben, teacher of philosophy, head of the univer- 
sity which gave us at Brown our first President and our in- 
spiring example. 

Alexander Crombie Humphreys, leader in the training of young 
engineers in applied science and devotion to the public good. 

Clarke Howard Johnson, chief justice of our commonwealth, 
whose patience, integrity, and knowledge assure righteous 
judgment to all. 

Abbott Lawrence Lowell, honored representative of our old- 
est university, leading it to express in new forms its per- 
petual care for the soul of youth. 

John Bassett Moore, counselor of our government, teacher of 
that international law which, when it shall have might as 
it has right, will establish among the warring nations an 
enduring peace. 

RoMULO Sebastian Naon, a leader of the South American re- 
publics, mediator when war impends, interpreter and friend 
in days of peace. 

William Peterson, trained in the Old World to train men in 
the New, deriving from ancient classics the skill to shape 
modern life. 

Frederico Alfonso Pezet, diplomatic representative of the land 
whose fateful history we read in youth, in whose developing 
resources and friendly attitude we rejoice. 

Carl Copping Plehn, sometime student in Brown University, 
now teacher and guide in principles of taxation and finance 
in a great university and a great commonwealth. 

i 226 J 



The Conferring of Degrees 

Jacob Gould Schurman, philosopher, publicist, educator, train- 
ing thousands for the service of the RepubHc. 

Edgar Fahs Smith, trained investigator and teacher, faithful ad- 
ministrator of an ancient trust. 

Robert Cooper Smith, practitioner and teacher of law, eloquent 
interpreter of the rights and duties of men. 

William Howard Taft, promoted from the White House to 
the professor's chair, retiring from the one amid universal 
expressions of good-will, and welcomed to the other by all 
the scholars of the land. 

Martha Carey Thomas, in the higher education of women a 
courageous, efficient, and honored leader. 

Lyon Gardiner Tyler, for a quarter-century administrator of 
our second colonial college, holding it true to the traditions 
of the southland and the service of the nation. 

Doctor of Letters 

William Cunningham, honored teacher of religious faith and 
economic history, representing here the university which 
trained Roger Williams and many of the early leaders in 
American life. 

John FRANKLm Jameson, leader in historical research, once pro- 
fessor at Brown, now teacher of teachers throughout the 
land. 

John Matthews Manly, scholarly interpreter and inspiring 
teacher of the mother tongue. 

Herbert Putnam, devoted and trusted guardian of a nation's 
books. 

James Ford Rhodes, historian and man of letters, whose pen 
illuminates all the path the nation has trod. 

Paul Shorey, representative of classic culture, translating for 
an industrial age the undying message of the Greeks. 

[ 227 :\ 



Brown University 

Frank William Taussig, distinguished student, author, and 
teacher in the ever-expanding field of economic science. 

Doctor of Sciefice 

Louis Agricola Bauer, student of the magnetic forces of the 
earth, compassing land and sea to discover the mysterious 
laws by which our globe is controlled. 

Simon Flexner, leader and organizer of medical research, 
constructive critic of medical education. 

Doctor of Divinity 

Charles Reynolds Brown, preacher of old faiths in new light, 
able organizer of the first School of Religion within the 
American church. 

Austen Kennedy DeBlois, minister of historic churches east 
and west, keeping the scholar's aim through years of Chris- 
tian toil. 

George Angier Gordon, through Scottish boyhood and Amer- 
ican manhood keeping the faith, announcing in clear tones 
to all the world the prophet's vision. 

George Hodges, educator and inspirer of preachers, training 
men to utter the ancient message in modern tongues. 

Shailer Mathews, author, teacher, administrator, chosen rep- 
resentative of the federated churches of America. 

Master of Arts 

John Davison Rockefeller, Jr. , student of social ills, unspoiled 
by fortune, steadfast in support of charity, education, and 
religion. 

After the conferring of degrees the orchestra played 
the" Coronation March" from the " Prophet," by Mey- 
erbeer. President Faunce pronounced the benediction. 

C 228 ^ 



The Conferring of Degrees 

The academic procession was then reformed as on the 
previous day, and marched to the front campus in the 
same order, where it was dismissed. 



[ 229 n 



Andrews Field Athletic Exercises 

ON Thursday afternoon, fifteenth October, an Ath- 
letic Exhibition was held at Andrews Field to 
illustrate the development of physical training from 
school to college. This exhibition included pageantry 
and folk -dances by school children; relay races be- 
tween teams from various secondary schools in Provi- 
dence and vicinity ; an inter-class relay race between 
teams of the four undergraduate classes; a relay race 
between college teams representing Brown and Wes- 
leyan ; and a football game between the elevens of the 
same colleges. Several hundred boys and girls of va- 
rious nationalities took part in the various exercises, be- 
sides the participating students from secondary school 
and college. The Rhode Island Boy Scouts, under the 
command of Mr. John E. England, performed escort, 
guide, and guard duty. A large audience composed of 
alumni, students, and guests of the University viewed 
the spectacle and games. 

The exercises by pupils in the grammar schools of 
Providence were carried out under the direction of Miss 
Ellen Le Garde, Director of Physical Training, assisted 
by various teachers in the Providence schools. After a 
" Grand March," the " Indian Tribes of Rhode Island " 
were depicted by pupils from the Broad Street and Ro- 
chambeau Avenue Grammar Schools, including an " In- 
dian Dance" by pupils from the latter school. Scenes 
followed descriptive of the first settlers of Rhode Island 
and Providence Plantations, including "Roger Williams 
andfivecompanionSjWiUiam Harris, John Smith, Joshua 
Verin, Thomas Angell, and Francis Wickes;" also 
"Anne Hutchinson, Mary Dyer, and Quaker compan- 

Z 230 J 



Andrews Field Exercises 

ions." These were represented by the graduating class 
of 1915 of the Peace Street Grammar School. Another 
scene depicted the Landing of Roger Williams on Slate 
Rock in 1636 and his welcome of "What Cheer" by 
the Indians. This pageantry was rehearsed and carried 
out under the direction of Miss Mary E. Sullivan, of 
the Peace Street School. Folk-dances in costume came 
next on the programme: a Celtic dance (jig), by the 
Academy Avenue Grammar School, under the training 
of Miss Harriet Parker and Miss Madeline Johnson; 
a Scotch reel, by the Vineyard Street Grammar School 
under that of Miss Carrie A. Swift; a Swedish dance 
( Axendansen ) , by the CandaceStreetGrammar School, 
under that of Miss Mary C. Greene; and an Italian 
dance ( Tarantella ) , by the Knight Street School, under 
that of Miss Mary T.Tillinghast, Miss Kathryn Lyons, 
and Miss Marguerite Rockwell. In the final event, 
described as "The Melting Pot," all the children with 
flags surrounded "Columbia," and, with a "Salute to 
the Flag," each joined vocally in the pledge: "I pledge 
allegiance to my Flag and to the Republic for which it 
stands; one Nation indivisible, with Freedom and Jus- 
tice for all." The audience assisted in bringing this por- 
tion of the programme to a close by joining in the salute 
to the flag and in the singing of "America." 

The secondary schools taking part in the mile re- 
lay running races were: the Providence Classical High 
School, the Providence Technical High School, the East 
Providence High School, the East Greenwich Acad- 
emy, the Moses Brown School, the Providence Hope 
Street High School, the Pawtucket High School, the 
Woonsocket High School, and the B. M. C. Durfee 
High School, of Fall River. Each school furnished four 
[ 231 ] 



Brown University 

runners, each running two hundred and twenty yards. 
The first five schools named took the honors, the Moses 
Brown School having to its credit the time of i .40 4/5 
for the half-mile. 

In the inter-class races the Freshman team, class 
of 1918, consisting of Frederick Billings Brooks, John 
Francis Isaac, Allison Miller, and William Allenwood 
Murray, won the mile relay race in 1.38V2 for the 
half-mile. In the two-mile relay race, the Brown team, 
consisting of Lawrence Hall, '15, Elliot Harris Bos- 
worth, '16, Albert Bullock Cook, '16, and MilbornEddy 
Saunders, '16, won in 8.282/5 over the Wesleyan team. 

In the football match the line-up of the Brown team 
was as follows: Right end, William Rhodes Le Roy 
McBee, '16; right tackle, Mark Farnum, '18; right 
guard, Allen Guy Maxwell, '16; centre, Seth Kimball 
Mitchell, '15 ; left guard, Aaron Elmer Gottshall, '15 ; 
left tackle, Raymond Belcher Ward,'i 7 ; left end, Wil- 
liam Nicholas Ormsby,'i 6 ; quarterback, James Patrick 
Murphy, '17; left halfback, Leonard Hulit Norcross, 
'18; right halfback, Harold Patterson Andrews, '16; 
full back, John Colvin Butner, Jr., '18. Substitutes sent 
in: Jesse Mitchell Bailey, '16; Edward Warren Blue, 
'16; Theodore Chandler, '1 5 ; Leslie Russell Clark, '1 8 ; 
Irving Scott Eraser, '17; Ralph Harry Gordon, '18; 
Walter Kenneth Sprague, '17; Edgar Jonathan Staff, 
'15; Byron Lillibridge West, 'i5- The final score was 
Brown 16, Wesleyan o.The officials were: referee, Carl 
Marshall ( Harvard ) ; umpire, T. S. Bergen ; head lines- 
man, E. J. Thorpe ( De La Salle). 



C 232 ;] 



The University Dinner 

A UNIVERSITY Dinner, tendered by the col- 
lege to the delegates and other invited guests, 
brought to a close the festivities of Celebration Week. 
The dinner was given at Churchill House, Providence, 
on Thursday evening, fifteenth October. An informal 
reception of the guests, ladies and gentlemen, took 
place between half after seven and eight o'clock. The 
dinner was served at fifty-one tables, which filled the 
main rooms and overflowed into the gallery. After 
hosts and guests to the number of three hundred had 
seated themselves at the tables, grace was said by the 
Rt. Rev. James DeWolf Perry, Bishop of Rhode Island. 
Dr. William Williams Keen, M.D., LL.D., a senior 
member of the Board of Fellows, presided at the head 
table. At his right were President Faunce, Ambassador 
Naon, Governor Pothier, Chancellor Arnold B. Chace, 
Mrs. John Nicholas Brown, Minister Pezet, Bishop 
Perry, Chief Justice Johnson, Mr. Andrew Carnegie, 
and Senator Le Baron B. Colt. At his left were the Hon. 
William H.Taft, President Lowell, Mr. Robert Cooper 
Smith, K.C., Archdeacon Cunningham, Mr. Henry 
D. Sharpe, Principal William Peterson, President M. 
Carey Thomas, Mr. Rowland G. Hazard, and the Hon. 
Arthur L. Brown. 

After the dinner Dr. Keen opened the speaking by 
saying : 

PRESIDENT Faunce, President Taft, Ladies and 
Gentlemen: After so many welcomes as you have 
had, it is best that I should not tender you another, 
though you may be sure that it would be as hearty as 
C 233 ] 



Brown University 

any of the others did I venture to give it formal ex- 
pression. May I repeat a suggestion just made to me? 
Former President Andrews has been in very poor 
health, and the suggestion is that on this anniversary of 
the one hundred and fiftieth year of our foundation the 
Chairman of the Celebration Committee, Mr. Henry D. 
Sharpe, be requested to send a telegram to him convey- 
ing the cordial greetings and best wishes of the Uni- 
versity and of all the friends of the institution. The 
unanimous "Ay" is your emphatic wish, and I will ask 
Mr. Sharpe kindly to write the telegram and send it to 
former President Andrews. 

I presume that I was asked to preside here because 
I am the oldest member of the Corporation in active 
service. Really it was a mistake, because I am sure that 
you do not appreciate how very old I am. My antiquity 
was brought to my attention very pointedly the other 
day in Philadelphia, following the May Day Festival 
at Bryn Mawr College. They always present a miracle 
play or something similar to it. This year the miracle 
play was entitled "Noah's Flood." Meeting one of my 
warmest friends two or three days after this, at a wed- 
ding reception, she pounced upon me and asked in the 
most eager manner, "Dr. Keen, did you see 'Noah's 
Flood'.''" I said solemnly, "Madam, I am willing to 
confess to the Middle Ages, but I must draw the line 
somewhere, and I draw it at Noah's Flood." Moreover, 
unless I had been one of Noah's own family, it is clear 
that I should have been drowned. 

The first speaker on our programme is a gentleman 
well known to you all, and who splendidly illustrates 
our boast that this land is a land of opportunity — a 
French Canadian boy who came to this country early in 



The University Dinner 

life. A few years after he was established here he 
became a member of the legislature, then mayor, then 
lieutenant-governor, and then governor. He has been 
so often elected and reelected governor that apparently 
you have got into the habit of so doing. I have the 
honor of introducing Governor Pothier. 

Governor Aram J. Pothier spoke in substance as follows: 

DR. Keen, President Taft, and guests of Brown 
University, Ladies and Gentlemen : This memo- 
rable occasion in the life of one of the foremost institu- 
tions of learning in America marks an epoch in the his- 
tory of our state, and I feel this evening fortunate in- 
deed to be here to meet such a distinguished gathering, 
and to be able to extend to them all the most cordial 
welcome of Rhode Island and its citizens. 

Public officials grow by experience to regard gov- 
ernmental efficiency as of the greatest importance in 
the general scheme of social advancement. There is 
to-day a wide field for the exercise of statesmanship in 
the true sense, that statesmanship that sees beyond the 
limitations of partisanship, that places the welfare of 
the nation above the needs of localities, that advocates 
justice and equity, and that subordinates self-interest to 
the interest of the state. The university stands as one 
of the great institutions of enlightenment. It recognizes 
the power for good in the statesmanship which I have 
described, and it is striving with determination to sup- 
ply the need in our national life. That its efforts may 
be crowned with success will be our earnest hope. Men 
of Brown ! You have just cause to be proud — proud of 
your University, of her expansion, of her influence, and 
of the achievements of her sons. Among the profes- 



Brown University 

sions, in the arts and sciences, on the bench, in public 
life, her name stands preeminent. The fame of Brown 
extends throughout the civilized world. In every land 
her sons are found diligent in their chosen fields of en- 
deavor, and contributing, the more for her teachings, 
to the development and advancement of the peoples 
of the earth. May the influence of such men as Brown 
sends out into the world be always for peace, for jus- 
tice, for truth, and for freedom ! 

Dr. Keen. This is not the first time that I have had 
the pleasure of introducing the second speaker of the 
evening. When, a few years ago, at the festival dinner 
which always concludes the general meeting of the 
American Philosophical Society, I had on my right the 
"American Commonwealth" as represented by James 
Bryce, and on my left the " Government of England" 
as represented by the President of Harvard University, 
I felt that it was indeed a notable occasion. When Har- 
vard was more than a century and a quarter old our 
little upstart of a college in Rhode Island first sprang 
into existence. It had a President, and a Faculty of one 
— the President himself. It had one student. Its treas- 
ury was like the earth at its genesis, so nebulous that 
it was "without form and void," or, to vary the form 
but not the fact, it was full to overflowing with emp- 
tiness. God bless Harvard and her president! We all 
yield the pas to her — the first of American universities, 
who comes to give us a birthday benediction. I have the 
honor of introducing Dr. Abbott Lawrence Lowell, the 
President of Harvard University, and now our fellow 
alumnus. 

C ^S6 ] 



The University Dinner 

President Abbott Lawrence Lowell spoke as follows: 

DR. Keen, President Taft,and members and guests 
of Brown University : The toastmaster this even- 
ing has omitted to inform me how long I am expected 
to speak, and I am loth to give short measure at a fes- 
tival of this kind. It is pleasant to meet on an occasion 
where we revere the past. It has been too much the 
fashion for our historians to blacken the sepulchres of 
our ancestors and to pick out all their faults. Our his- 
torians have conclusively proved that every settlement 
in the United States has contributed to the life of this 
country its share of error. Massachusetts and Boston 
were founded by the Puritans, who were very anxious 
to worship God in their own way and to prevent Him 
from being worshipped in any other way ; and for that 
purpose they expelled all eccentrics to Rhode Island, 
and the exiles came down here so much to the terror 
of former inhabitants that all the natural virtues fled 
and established themselves in the bay. 

After all, these errors were merely the reverse side 
of the good, and I think, as we look back at history, it 
is the good that has survived and not the error. The 
good side of Puritanism, as I understand it, was that 
the Puritan regarded every act in life, however trivial, 
as having a moral value and moral consequence; and 
that feeling has sunk deep into the bone and sinew of 
our nation. The great thing about the establishment of 
Brown University was the spirit of broad toleration in 
which its foundation was laid — no, not toleration, but 
the recognition of the right and duty of every kind of 
religion to take its part in the direction of education. 

But we are met to-day not to discuss history, nor even 
to discuss education. We are come here for the celebra- 
C 237 ] 



Brown University 

tion of a birthday. The sons, kinsmen, and friends of 
Alma Mater have come here to lay their homage at the 
feet of the gray-haired young woman, the gray-haired 
young mother, who sits upon the hill above Providence. 
I say gray-haired because no institution really reaches 
its greatest influence over the sentiments and hearts of 
men until it has passed beyond the span of human life, 
until no one can remember its origin, and every one 
looks back upon it as a great tradition. The sister uni- 
versities here in America trace back to an ancient lin- 
eage ; they have a noble origin ; they trace back to the 
old universities, to Bologna and Salerno. It is a long 
and glorious life, reaching back to the times when the 
pioneers of learning kept the lights burning for those 
who should come after ; and it is one of the greatest in- 
spirations of life to feel one's self somehow an instru- 
ment in the long, long process in which the tool itself 
is unimportant compared to the great living work ; to 
feel one's self a worker in that long, long service which 
needs every one who will put his hand to the plow. 

In Westminster Abbey there is a sentence written 
upon the monument of the Wesleys which has always 
impressed me deeply. It is in Wesley's own words: 
"God buries his workman but carries on his work." 
That is the feeling that any one must have who belongs 
to an institution that runs far into the past and that will 
run into a long, indefinite future; an institution in which 
one can feel he is a link in a long, long chain of men 
whose efforts have been directed to doing the work set 
before them, not with a view to the present, but with 
a view to the future. 

And then I say that this mother is not only gray- 
haired, but that she is young. She is young because the 
I 238 : 



The University Dinner 

institution is ever changing, ever fresh, ever new, ever 
strong. It is our business to see that it does change, and 
that it keeps fresh, and new, and strong. It is our busi- 
ness to see that we retain all that is vital in the tradi- 
tions that we have received from the past, and that we 
add to them all that is required to fulfil the wants of the 
present. More, perhaps, than at any other time in the 
history of our country is this needed, when we recall 
that on the other side of the ocean young men are per- 
ishing to-day who would otherwise light the lamp for 
the future, that lives are being cut off on both sides 
which are precious beyond measure for the future civil- 
ization of man. Remember Galois, that young French- 
man who was cut off many years ago in a duel at 
twenty-one, and left in a letter to a friend the founda- 
tions of a great branch of mathematics. How many 
young lives that would have contributed to human 
knowledge are now being cut off we do not know, we 
never shall know, we never can know, but that the 
future is being robbed is certain ; and it is for us to do 
the work which those men will have left undone. It is 
for us to repair in our institutions of learning, as well 
as we can, that which is lost. 

Representing the sister universities of Brown, we 
come here to-day simply to tell her our wish that she 
may be ever younger and more beautiful as she sits 
proudly upon her hill, crowned with her ever whiter 
and whiter hair! 

Dr. Keen: The next speaker is a composite Briton. 
He was born in Edinburgh, married in Dublin, has lived 
in London, and is now domiciled in the ancient Univer- 
sity of Cambridge. He has come hither in spite of all the 

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perils of war and the discomforts of the deep, to bring 
us salutations and blessings from our European breth- 
ren, and especially from the British universities. He is 
a prolific author, a winner of many prizes, and repre- 
sents to-day a feature which was very prominent in the 
early history of Brown. In 1 769, at the first Commence- 
ment, among the twenty-two honorary degrees con- 
ferred, eight were given to British clergymen. The next 
year we gave six. Then came on the War of the Revo- 
lution, when the college was closed. Soon after the Rev- 
olution, when the college was reopened, we find that 
we gave British scholars scattering degrees at first, but 
in the year 1785 we conferred five honorary degrees 
on inhabitants of Great Britain, in 1791 five, in 1792 
five, and in 1 793 six. It is an early habit that we have 
happily revived to-day. It is with great pleasure, there- 
fore, that I introduce to you our fellow alumnus, the 
Venerable Archdeacon William Cunningham, of Trin- 
ity College, Cambridge. 

Archdeacon Cunningham's address was in substance 
as follows: 

DR. Keen, and Ladies and Gentlemen: I have been 
asked to perform the arduous task of conveying 
to you the congratulations of the universities of Europe 
on your one hundred and fiftieth anniversary. Perhaps 
I may give my credentials for presuming to attempt 
such an onerous mission. Looking back to my student 
life, I feel that some of my happiest days were passed 
in the University of Tubingen and subsequently in the 
University of Marburg. I am also an Edinburgh grad- 
uate, and I am a St. Andrews graduate. Besides, I have 
been for some time past a teacher in Cambridge Uni- 

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versity. I therefore feel that I have some personal know- 
ledge of European universities of different types. 

Fifteen years ago I spent some months in America. 
As I visited one university after another I had the 
opportunity of making acquaintance with a good deal 
that went on in various colleges. I had the privilege of 
holding official positions, first at Harvard and later in 
the University of Wisconsin. There were many fea- 
tures that struck me as curiously like what I had been 
familiar with as a student in Edinburgh University. Of 
course I know the ancestry of your oldest university ; 
Emmanuel College in Cambridge was reproduced in 
Harvard, but it does not seem to me to have been the 
sole source of academic life in America. Different ele- 
ments which have been at work here can be traced out ; 
and I have been struck with the resemblance between 
your colleges and the typical Scottish university. For 
one thing, your colleges have a close contact with civil 
life, and the same is true of the Scottish universities. 
A gathering such as there was at Andrews Field this 
afternoon, where a university celebration was joined in 
by all the educational institutions in town, would have 
seemed inappropriate in some European universities. It 
would not be so unnatural in Scottish universities. The 
close connection between the academic life and the life 
of the community as a whole is one of which gowns- 
men and townsmen are alike conscious. 

Another thing: the college course which I went 
through in Edinburgh University was similar in many 
ways to the college course which I find existing here in 
America. More than that, in regard to the matter and 
method of teaching, the resemblance to the Scottish 
universities is very close. The systematic teaching of 
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English, the making English grammar and English lit- 
erature an important branch of study, brought me back 
to the Scottish university. There had been no professor, 
no chair of English literature in the University of Cam- 
bridge until about three years ago. It was through the 
Latin language that w^e in England approached the 
humanities, rather than through Enghsh literature. In 
the Scottish university English literature was taken to 
a much larger extent as the basis of polite learning. 
Scots found that, when they went out into England, and 
beyond into the largerfield of theBritish Empire, where 
so many Scottish men have since done good work, it 
was well for them to be able to talk and write good 
English. The Scots saw on which side their bread was 
buttered, and they studied English carefully. Those are 
elements which seem to indicate a family likeness be- 
tween the Scottish and the American universities. 

I appeared yesterday as a delegate of Cambridge in 
particular, but I may claim to speak now on behalf of 
other universities in the British Isles as well. If it be 
true, as I believe, that the Scottish universities have 
helped to plant a great living power in this country, 
they congratulate you on your vigorous life, on the 
way in which you have assimilated all sorts of help 
from other lands. A vigorous stock has been planted in 
this land which has had the greatest influence on the 
New World. 

I should like to say one word about my personal 
associations with this state of Rhode Island. When I 
was here fifteen years ago I felt that the university in- 
fluence was affecting men in civil life who had no aca- 
demic positions. I was the guest of William B. Weeden, 
whom I greatly miss on returning here to-day, a man 

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The University Dinner 

engaged in business, who devoted himself enthusiasti- 
cally to important historical studies.lt has been a great 
satisfaction to me to know that he was so much thought 
of among students of yours, and that he also earned the 
recognition which prophets so rarely earn in their own 
country and was enrolled among the honorary gradu- 
ates of Brown University. I have other associations with 
Rhode Island. George Berkeley was one of the heroes 
of my Edinburgh days, when I was a student under 
Fraser, who edited Berkeley, and who inspired me with 
something of his enthusiasm for that remarkable man. 
Berkeley had a great power of writing beautiful Eng- 
lish. He had also exceptional merits as a Christian phi- 
losopher. He was also a man with strong philanthropic 
interests. This man was a great connecting link be- 
tween English culture in his day and American culture. 
On a former visit to Rhode Island I went to see 
Berkeley's seat, and I felt there an extraordinary in- 
terest in him and in his connection with this state. In 
Queenstown Harbor the other day I looked out toward 
Cloyne Cathedral, where there is a magnificent monu- 
ment of him, but somehow or other, when I had crossed 
the Atlantic and stood on the campus of Brown, I found 
that there is an even better monument here, a living 
witness to what at least he would have wished to have 
done, something that embodies the desires which he 
cherished, and something which has given reality to his 
most cherished dreams, in Brown University. 

Dr. Keen. At the dinners of the American Philosophi- 
cal Society I have had the honor of introducing sev- 
eral European ambassadors, but never until this even- 
ing have I had the high honor of introducing a South 

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American ambassador. The speaker is a man who has 
hardly reached middle life, and yet, in defiance of the 
idea that America is the especial country of young men, 
we can point to the Argentine Republic also as an 
equally fine field for young men. Our guest is a distin- 
guished scholar, a professor of philosophy and of con- 
stitutional law in the great University of Buenos Aires. 
He has filled, also, important diplomatic posts. He was, 
moreover, a delegate to the second Hague Conference, 
and recently became well known to us as one of the 
three South American delegates who tried to smooth 
the path to peace in Mexico. 

I have the honor again to introduce a fellow alum- 
nus — and you will all agree with me that Brown has 
never conferred a more worthy degree — His Excel- 
lency Dr. Romulo S. Naon, the ambassador from the 
Argentine Republic. 

Ambassador Naon spoke in substance as follows: 

DR. Keen, President Taft, Governor Pothier, La- 
dies and Gentlemen: Fifty years ago, just about 
this time, Sarmiento, the first Argentine minister pleni- 
potentiary to the United States and later the greatest 
president our country has ever had, came to the city of 
Providence to sit as an honorary member among the 
members of the Rhode Island Historical Society. That 
society had also honored with the same distinction an- 
other great Argentine patriot. General Mitre, historian, 
poet, and eminent statesman, who played an important 
role in the organization of our republic, and who was 
the first to occupy the presidency after the thorough 
consolidation of our republic under its present wise con- 
stitution. These two names live in the hearts and in 
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the memory of my compatriots as an inspiration and 
as a gospel. Hence you can imagine my emotion at this 
moment when I breathe the atmosphere which has been 
familiar to me since the beginning of my mental life, 
inasmuch as we feel that the names of Providence and 
Rhode Island are associated with the development of 
the moral greatness of my country. 

So eloquent a recognition as that accorded by the 
Rhode Island Historical Society in those by-gone days 
could not but constitute for Argentine democracy, then 
just born, a demonstration that the virtues and capa- 
cities of its citizens were to give her the position for 
which she had herself long been striving. So at that 
time the Rhode Island Historical Society represented at 
home a bond between my country and this state which 
had honored the virtues of our great men. 

Here Sarmiento found another bond between this 
beautiful city and this state of Rhode Island with our 
country, the public schools which we have estabhshed 
as a demonstration to the Old World of democratic in- 
spiration. We have placed the name of Horace Mann 
at the head of our schools; and his name constitutes 
to-day for them one of the purest models of republican 
patriotism. In the catalogue of Argentine moral inspira- 
tions the names of Rhode Island and Providence are 
themselves consecrated. In the successive generations 
in my country there has been formed, in a great meas- 
ure from the writings of our great Sarmiento, the deep 
feeling of respect which my countrymen cherish for the 
high moral achievements of your city and state. 

Consider, then, ladies and gentlemen, the emotion 
I felt on receiving to-day from a university as illustri- 
ous as Brown this mark of its esteem. We have still 
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Brown University 

another bond in addition to those created by the Rhode 
IslandHistorical Society andthepublicschools, — Brown 
University, an institution for which as a student and as 
a university man I have always entertained the warm- 
est admiration. 

I cannot resist the temptation, before closing, of re- 
calling some words of Sarmiento. In his famous speech 
before the Rhode IslandHistorical Society he said: " But 
in the same manner there is no effect without a cause. 
So also does it happen that extremes meet, and con- 
trasts shall be affinities, and it might be that between 
our bay and the Bay of Narragansett, between Buenos 
Aires and Providence, between the extreme north of 
America and the extreme south of America, there ex- 
ist those mysterious cords of attraction which are often 
found between different suns." I would be glad, should 
time not prevent me, to offer you the result of my mod- 
est reflection on these words, and to attempt to show 
how those mysterious currents of attraction exist in fact 
between our two countries, and how the Argentine 
people, after admiringyour aspirations and yourachieve- 
ments for a hundred years, have come to share your 
ideas; and, further, to record the determination that 
that southern extreme of America, to which Sarmiento 
referred, is to have its share with that of the extreme 
north in the work of advancing fraternity and good- will 
among men as well as fraternity and good- will among 
the nations. 

I wish again to assure you of my profound gratitude 
for the very high honor you have bestowed upon me 
this day. I receive it as a mark of homage to my coun- 
try, where the name of yours has always been affection- 
ate and familiar to us, where the marvelous develop- 
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The University Dinner 

ment of your culture and your progress are proclaimed 
with the most sincere enthusiasm and the deepest friend- 
ship, and where, finally, we get the best expression of 
the principles on which the present solid foundation 
of our political structure is built. I shall therefore cher- 
ish among the most gratifying recollections of my life 
this day on which, honoring my country, you have hon- 
ored me. 

Dr. Keen. I have only time to allude to three of the 
many distinctions which characterize the next speaker. 
One is enough for most of us. He is an ex-Batonnier of 
the Canadian bar; second, he is a King's Counsel; and 
thirdly, his greatest distinction is that he belongs to the 
family of Smith, the largest, the most distinguished, 
and the most ancient of all the families of the world. It 
gives me very great pleasure to introduce the head of 
the Clan Smith, Robert Cooper Smith, the well-known 
lawyer from Montreal, still another fellow alumnus. 

Mr. Robert Cooper Smith spoke in substance as follows: 

MR. Chairman, Mr. President, Your Excellency, 
Ladies and Gentlemen : I do not remember who 
it was that said that there are times in every man's 
life when he must be content to lose the reputation of 
being wise in order to try to win the reputation of 
being kind. I feel that I should forfeit the possibility 
of a reputation for either if I detained you by a speech 
this evening. One might be forgiven, I imagine, if he 
endeavored to prolong a mellow afterglow, when the 
sun had set in all its brilliancy, but I doubt very much 
whether anybody is to be pardoned if he deliberately 
retards the sun in all its brilliancy. You are all waiting 

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Brown University 

to hear some one else, and yet I must at least express 
the very high appreciation with which I received the 
great honor that you conferred upon me to-day, and 
I must also express my great delight in visiting Brown 
University again, and particularly upon so very inter- 
esting an occasion as the one hundred and fiftieth an- 
niversary of its foundation. 

What changes this one hundred and fifty years have 
witnessed! The map of the world has been altered; 
yet I imagine that the changes, governmental and ter- 
ritorial, have not been as great as the changes in those 
things that may be said to make up the intellectual 
life of the world. I have never seen your first curricu- 
lum, to which reference was made yesterday by Justice 
Hughes, but it must be a very plain suggestion of the 
course to-day. In McGill University we had a very 
much beloved professor, who would hardly tell you 
that he came from the good old island, from Trinity 
College, Dublin. At a corporation meeting he showed 
that he was n't quite satisfied with the march of prog- 
ress, and he said: " Now, when the curriculum was last 
revised, there were a number of blanks left, and it was 
understood that when the university was enlarged 
those blanks would be filled. Now, what have they done .? 
They have taken away those blanks and have put actu- 
ally nothing in their places." Your work, your curricu- 
lum, has raced — has kept pace with the years. 

I suppose every one has some order, set perhaps from 
the habits of thought, of the faculties which he culti- 
vates ; and intelligence sets up for itself some tables of 
value. The tables of value vary with the individual, and 
perhaps there is no greater work that the university 
does than to assist mankind in the compilation of its 

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tables of value. It has accustomed the world to the 
truth that there are things that are of very real value 
that cannot be bought and sold by the pound ; that there 
are things of great value that are not listed on any 
stock exchange; that there are great moral forces that 
have moved the w^orld and will move the world again 
that have no relation whatever to iron and steel and 
nitroglycerine compounds. 

Have all these tables of value established by such uni- 
versities as yours been displaced.? We are accustomed 
to think that the millennium has already dawned. Great 
men and good and true the world over, and none more 
so than the main figures in American public life dur- 
ing the last twenty-five years, have consecrated their 
lives to the great cause of peace. We have a permanent 
court established at The Hague. We have the court of 
international justice outlined. We have more than that: 
we have added to all this prospect the splendid example 
of a century of peace between the English-speaking 
nations, a century marked by many trying experiences 
and vexed questions of territory left long enough to fes- 
ter, by almost everything that could produce war; but 
with an unfortified boundary of three thousand miles 
we have had a century of peace because your great men 
and ours did not set up might above right, because 
when we made treaties we kept them honorably, be- 
cause national necessity was never allowed to stifle 
national honor. Who can doubt but that that century 
of peace is a lasting honor to those two great English- 
speaking nations.? 

While you continue to enjoy the blessings of peace, 
we are at war — a war the most ghastly that this world 
has ever seen. You know as much about the causes 

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Brown University 

of the present war as I do, and I am not even going 
to refer you to anything. But it was a sad awakening 
to us all — you know that — as sad as it was possible to 
have; and it forced upon us several truths in rather a 
brutal fashion. One is that we have not yet reached the 
millennium. Another is that peace is only a condition 
that,accordingtocircumstances, maybe glorious or may 
be ignoble. And, thirdly, the most brutal one still, that 
the nation that will save itself must still conserve its 
virility. It is too soon to put our rifles into museums. I 
thought as we walked up the hill this morning, in that 
procession which shall ever live in my memory, if it 
should encounter heavy artillery charges and so forth, 
what would be the chances of the encounter. We can- 
not meet arms with Ave Marias, nor can we repel steel 
with syllogisms. Yet I could not but think that that 
army marching up the hill, brilhant with varied colors 
emblematic of intellectual distinction, that that silent 
procession represented in reality forces truer, higher, 
more potent, more all-conquering, than any army of 
steel and iron, of guns and swords, could possibly rep- 
resent. The things that are seen are temporal; the 
things that are unseen are eternal. You are devoted to 
the cause of peace; we are no less so than you are, so 
only that it be peace with justice and liberty. 

You recall that classic race-course on which each 
of the contestants had to bear a lighted lamp, and none 
could win the laurel unless he arrived at the goal with 
his lamp still burning. You began less than one hun- 
dred and fifty years ago. You made magnificent prog- 
ress from the first. Your problems were deep and were 
complex. You have solved them by wisdom. You had 
that pertinacious quality derived from the race from 
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The University Dinner 

which you sprung, and you have added to that an in- 
genuity born from a new world and its necessities, and 
upon your original characteristics you have built up a 
great American character that is to-day in the world 
equally formidable and admirable ; and so you have per- 
sisted and developed history. You are a united people, 
the most numerous of all our nations, exemplifying 
your motto, " E pluribus unum ; " and you are preserv- 
ing American, and true American, ideals. 

If I may be forgiven for saying so, the old empire 
has also progressed. It has thrown forward around the 
circle of the world young nations, and wherever it has 
gone it has granted to them the principles of free insti- 
tutions and free civil government, and has established 
above all the principles of civil and religious liberty. 
When I thought of that ancient race-course I thought 
that to you and to us has been committed the great 
lamp of liberty. We may leap through the decades in 
pursuit of power and of glory, and of everything that 
can inspire a transcendental nation, but we shall never 
attain true national honor if we allow anything to ob- 
scure, much less extinguish, that vestal flame. Your 
mission is, as ours, to help the weak and raise the fallen ; 
not only to point men upward, but to assist them to 
reach the highest of their possibilities. I have confidence 
that this old world is not going to be ruled by physical 
force; it is going to be ruled by justice, by mercy, by 
principle, and by truth. In the bright future the subli- 
mated intelligence of man shall not only see truth, but 
shall abide by the truth. These things shall never suffer 
defeat. 

Let us follow the faith of your own poet, Whittier: 

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Brown University 

"But life shall on and upward ^o; 
The eternal step of progress heats 
To that great anthem^ calm and sloiv^ 
Which God repeats. 

" Take heart! — the Waster builds again, — 
A charmed life old Goodness hath; 
The tares may perish, — but the grain 
Is not for death. 

" God xvorks in all things; all obey 

His first propulsion from the night; 
Wake thou and -watch! — the -world is gray 
With morning lightP 

Dr. Keen. The next speaker is not on our programme. 
It was my intention to have called him immediately after 
the Governor, as was due to the high position he has 
held, but he begged that he might be placed at the end 
of the feast, just before the President of the University, 
and of course I complied with his wish. His name does 
not appear because the programme for the dinner was 
already printed before we knew that we might have 
the high honor and privilege of listening to him. When 
I heard to-day that he was to speak, immediately there 
occurred to me the sentence by which I would intro- 
duce him, or rather present him, to you ; and the splen- 
did acclaim that welcomed him this morning in the old 
First Baptist Meeting-House gives warrant for what I 
am to say. It is simply this : No man in public life in the 
United States is more honored and trusted, and, what 
is more to the heart of every man and woman, no man 
is more sincerely beloved than the Honorable William 
H. Taft, our former President and fellow alumnus. 

The Honorable William H. Taft said, among other 
things : 

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The University Dinner 

IT is a great pleasure, to take part in honoring Brown 
University and in celebrating her birthday, her one 
hundred and fiftieth birthday. And you cannot take part 
in the celebration without contrasting her history with 
that of some of the other universities. President Had- 
ley is not here, so in a poor way I may claim to repre- 
sent Yale ; and I think it is a comment on the history of 
Brown that the President of Harvard and a represen- 
tative of Yale are here to contribute to the celebration 
and to comment on the greatest — one of the greatest 
— qualities of Brown, namely, that from the beginning 
Brown has been non-sectarian. Harvard and Yale had 
to make some arrangements by which they ceased to be 
sectarian, and now we also are in the fold of liberal uni- 
versities whose professors, if they can only live twenty 
years — and that is what I am struggling to do — may 
be saved for the contemplation of a grateful country. 
Brown early showed a liberality in her curriculum. The 
thing that strikes me more than anything about Brown, 
brought out by discussion in some newspapers as to 
whether Brown is a university or not, is this, that the 
greatest failures in history are those efforts to blow 
one's self up like the frog until he bursts. This effort 
to expand into all sorts of activities so that we may be 
called a university has frequently paralyzed that which 
in America has really made the strength of our edu- 
cational college activity. As President Lowell said at 
Washington, when referring to the necessity of our uni- 
versities devoting more time to undergraduate work, 
that is the life sentiment, the nucleus of everything. 
Now, Brown has devoted its attention all the time to 
that ; and it has been willing to grow by having that 
kind of growth and by making that part of the univer- 
C ^53 3 



Brown University 

sity within it strong and useful; and at the same time 
without that ambition that sometimes injures progress, 
with a moderation that goes with the modesty of Rhode 
Island and this civilization here that holds unto what 
is good, and expands that gradually, but maintains its 
standard through all. Now that is what makes me re- 
spect and venerate Brown. You have not changed. You 
began as an institution of toleration and you are such 
to-day. Harvard and Yale and all the other colleges 
before you were sectarian. We have gone on and I 
don't know but we have passed you, perhaps too far, in 
that regard. Perhaps we have gone to an extreme. You 
stand for that steady, conservative progress of which, 
since I have got out of office, I am in favor. 

There is a feature of this meeting that nobody else 
has commented on, and I hasten to be the first to refer 
to it. That is that we are honored by the presence of 
women at this banquet. I am in favor of having them 
at every banquet always. Of course they add to the 
charm of it, and of course they add to the smoothness 
with which everything goes off. It is not essential that 
we should get into a discussion as to suffrage because 
they are here, but it seems to me that the narrowness 
of dinner committees heretofore has been based on the 
fear that their company now in the present state of the 
campaign would lead to some controversy on that sub- 
ject. You have a Women's College here, and I have no 
doubt that it improves the old Brown University. In that 
respect you have expanded somewhat; you have made 
what other colleges have considered possibly a danger- 
ous experiment. I am glad to know that you have been 
able to get in the sisters and still retain the conserva- 
tism, the valuable conservatism, of old Brown. 
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The University Dinner 

I congratulate President Faunce, I congratulate all 
the alumni of Brown University, on this great celebra- 
tion of one hundred and fifty years of useful life, and 
from the bottom of my heart I thank you for the honor 
of being enrolled among your alumni. 

Dr. Keen. Before introducing the next and the last 
speaker I have the pleasure of presenting to Brown 
four gifts. 

In the first place, I hold in my hand the favor- 
ite cane that was carried by Morgan Edwards, the 
founder, because he was the first proposer, of this Uni- 
versity. It is presented to Brown University by his 
great-grandson, Mr. E. R. Siewers, of Philadelphia. 
Attached to it is a card with Morgan Edwards's coat- 
of-arms. 

In the second place, last June my own class, which 
graduated, as I have said, almost in the Middle Ages, 
— 1 859, — started the Alumni Loyalty Fund as the first 
subscribers to the fund. The class of 1859 has made 
up a fund of $1400, which we now present to the Uni- 
versity. 

Thirdly, we have in Philadelphia a small alumni as- 
sociation. After the Boston Association we are the old- 
est of all the alumni associations. We have had more 
enterprise than the New York, the Boston, or any other 
association in that we started a number of years ago to 
raise in our modest way a scholarship fund. As time 
went on our idea expanded, till finally we decided to 
increase the amount and found a Fellowship Fund, and 
to name this fellowship after Morgan Edwards. I have 
here a letter from the treasurer which announces that 
the fund is now completed, and amounts to 110,026.33. 
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Brown University 

Whenever the income amounts to one thousand dol- 
lars, it is to be awarded to a graduate of the University 
who has taken a degree in course. The recipient is to 
spend a year in research in any part of the world where 
the best advantages for the study of the subject chosen 
may exist. It is to be given solely on the basis of past 
performance and future promise; and it may be ex- 
tended under certain conditions to two years. In addi- 
tion to that, the very wise provision is made that in the 
year 1930, or afterwards, if conditions change, any of 
the provisions at present governing the award may be 
changed by a concurrent vote of the Faculty and Board 
of Fellows, with one proviso — it shall always be for 
original research. This fund we now present to the Uni- 
versity. 

The fourth gift that I wish to announce is peculiar. 
It is a glacier. When my daughter. Miss Dora Keen, 
went to Alaska this summer to map, measure, and pho- 
tograph the glaciers in College Fjord, I said to her, 
" You know that all these glaciers are named for vari- 
ous colleges, Harvard, Yale, Bryn Mawr, and so on. 
Now, remember, if you find a stray glacier that no one 
has named, I want that named for Brown University 
in honor of our one hundred and fiftieth anniversary." 
I had a telegram from her from the Pacific coast a few 
days ago saying that she had found and named the 
" Brown University Glacier," a glacier ten miles long 
and one mile wide, and adding, " My best wishes for 
another one hundred and fifty years of service as suc- 
cessful as the last go with this announcement to the 
University I have been proud to honor." 

Now, I cannot, indeed I dare not, introduce to you 
the last speaker. I only present him to you as a fine 
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The University Dinner 

example of the famous toast of George William Curtis : 
"The Brown bred boys make the best bred men." I 
ask you to rise and salute President Faunce. 

President Faunce said : 

FRIENDS of Brown : Our honored toastmaster,like 
the Magi of old, comes bearing gifts. I am happy 
to accept this fellowship fund, and this beginning of the 
loyalty fund, which I hope will be followed by many 
other gifts of the same kind to that fund. I am equally 
happy to accept the big stick of Morgan Edwards, and 
to place it beside the staff of James Manning, which is 
already in my home and will be there as long as the 
president's house stands. The presentation of a glacier 
might be described as a cool proposition, but a univer- 
sity officer is accustomed to taking cold things and hot 
things with equal avidity and gratitude. I do not know 
when I shall be able to visit this new Brunonian prop- 
erty, probably not for some time. Without attempting 
the icy summit, we may say with Wordsworth, 

" We have a vision of our own, 
Ah! xvhy should xue undo it?" 

Yes, we have visions of our own. This week, the whole 
five golden October days have been days of visions of 
our own. We have had a vision of the whole one hun- 
dred and fifty years compressed into one hour by the 
masterly mind of Charles Evans Hughes. The light of 
the past falling on the veiling mists of the future has 
given us rainbows in which we see the promise that, as 
our seed-time has come, our harvest shall not fail. 

Now let me say "Thank you." Let me thank the 
very energetic and efficient committees that have had 

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Brown University 

charge of these five days of high festival. I hear busi- 
ness firms sometimes lament academic inefficiency. 
They tell us we need scientific management. I question 
whether there is any business firm in the country that 
could manage more effectively, or with greater accu- 
racy and precision, the five days' enterprise than have 
these academic dreamers of our college faculty. And we 
thank them. We who walk the deck of the ship think at 
the end of the voyage of the men who have been down 
in the hold making the vessel go. Then we want to 
thank our guests who have come from near and far. 
They do not know what their presence means to us, the 
inspiration of seeing ourselves in the constellation of 
American universities and colleges. We thought pos- 
sibly you, our guests, might come with some reluctance 
at leaving important tasks, or that you might be bored 
by the celebrations of another family; but if you felt re- 
luctance, you have cleverly dissembled, and if you have 
been pursued by regrets, you have happily concealed 
them. Your coming has meant so much to us and to this 
community and to this state, that every one of us con- 
nected with the University heartily thanks you. 

We know there are others who would be here. Just 
as I reached this hall to-night there came a cablegram 
dated London, October 15, 1914: "Heartiest congratu- 
lations. Bryce." A message from James Bryce is always 
an inspiration in every American undertaking. 

I am sure that we have all felt this week what it 
means to be in the goodly fellowship of the academic 
world. I have known many associations of many kinds, 
educational, religious, philanthropic, but I have never 
known any happier friendship, any more genuine fel- 
lowship, anywhere in the world than I have found in 

c 258 :} 



The University Dinner 

academic life. It is good to be even a college president, 
when surrounded by a Faculty so loyal and considerate 
and self-sacrificing as the Faculty of Brown University 
is and always has been. 

How much we owe also to the members of the Cor- 
poration working beside the Faculty ! This assembly 
ought to realize, if it does not, that one of the greatest 
assets of Brown University is the toastmaster of this 
evening. Dr. William W. Keen. I don't know how many 
years he has been on the Corporation, — the memory 
of man runneth not to the contrary; but he is more 
versatile and exuberant now than ever in his life. As I 
was telling a friend the other evening, he writes me at 
least once a week, and sometimes every day, and says, 
"Why don't you do this and that; other universities 
are doing it." He prods me when I am sleeping, and 
delights me when I wake. He is both gadfly and night- 
ingale. 

I wish I could speak of others. I wish I could speak 
fittingly of Colonel Robert H. I. Goddard. Our chill 
New England temper forbids us to say the things we 
most deeply feel; they go unsaid forever; but there are 
men, many of them, some into whose faces I am look- 
ing, who have given of their life-blood for the ideals 
for which the University stands; and to be associated 
with such men, to walk with them up the hill arm in 
arm, and heart touching heart, is a privilege that makes 
my life worth living. 

I am thinking of one remark made to me that has 
been of great help. It is the remark of President Angell, 
detained from us this week by serious illness in his 
family — one of the greatest disappointments to him, as 
it is to us all. He came into my office when I first came 
[ 259 ^ 



Brown University 

here, and I said, "Now I am only a novice, haven't 
you some advice to give me ? " And he replied, " Every 
one has got to make his own way. I might, however, 
say one thing : a college president has got to have an- 
tennae." We all realize how richly Dr. Angell has been 
endowed with that ability to perceive movements and 
tendencies to which others may be blind. 

It is a goodly fellowship, it is a delightful life to me. 
The only tragic thing is that sometimes it looks as if 
we might be remembered for the things we care least 
about. I am sure that every college officer knows that 
the greatest fact connected with the work he is doing 
is never the number of dollars in the treasury or the 
number of students on the roster. What do we care for 
money except as a means to an end, money devoted 
as is this Philadelphia fellowship, by which centuries 
from now may be created scholars of high power of 
research.'' What do we care for numbers except as 
they represent intellectual fellowship, intellectual in- 
terests, high spiritual ideals.? So we are willing, if need 
be, to sacrifice numbers to standards: the size of the 
University to the value of its curriculum. Yet, as I was 
coming in this evening, I certainly was not displeased to 
hear from our registrar that, for the first time, this year 
our numbers pass the one thousand mark, and that we 
have one thousand and eleven students enrolled in the 
University. 

What will hold a college true to its original im- 
pulse ^ How shall we keep it loyal to the tradition of 
the fathers, to the finest things that went into its found- 
ing ? Not by statutes and regulations ; not by an iron- 
bound creed, as the founders of Brown had discovered 
before they came together; not by any charter, how- 

[ 260 ] 



The University Dinner 

ever minute and specific its regulations may be. I be- 
lieve that what we need above all is the reinterpreta- 
tion of the past to the present. We need on anniversary 
days to come back and establish not merely what were 
the laws in the book, but what was the purpose behind 
each law. What was the ideal that animated those men ? 
What was the vision they saw.^' What was the concep- 
tion they had of why they were in the world, and why 
this nation is here.? If we achieve this reinterpretation 
to each generation, — and the college generation is only 
four years in length, — if we can every four years at 
least reinterpret to the alumni and the students and the 
friends why we were originally, how we have become 
what we are, what we are striving for, then there is 
continuity of spiritual life, then the tradition is handed 
on from father to son, and then the years behind us 
become the fruitful soil out of which grows all that is 
good. 

So I feel to-night like congratulating every teacher 
in the University, every officer, every friend who by his 
presence to-day speaks encouragement and God-speed. 
Many things divide us in the modern world, things 
of war and things of peace, but in education we come 
together. The man who doesn't believe in that has no 
place in civilized society, and the man who does believe 
in that ought to find some way of linking his life with 
all others who hold the same faith. So to-night we offer 
our homage to the men that have lived before us, and 
in their spirit and purpose we face the future. 

I often think of the words of Matthew Arnold in 
the shadow of Rugby Chapel, when, as the evening 
was falling, he invoked the teachers of the past, and 
said that they recall the stragglers, reinspire the brave. 



Brown University- 
strengthen the wavering lines, and continue our march 
"on, on to the bound of the waste, on to the city of 
God." May that be the happy experience of Brown 
University and of all who stand with it! 

Dr. Keen. When you came to Brown University on 
this occasion you were greeted with the first two words 
that are inscribed over one of the gates of Rothenburg, 
that quaint, picturesque, red German city: "Pax En- 
trantibus." It is now my pleasure also to extend to you 
the benediction of the concluding words of the same 
inscription: "Salus Exeuntibus." 

Our festival and our feast are now a memory. May 
that memory long endure as an unalloyed joy ! 



1 262 :i 



Ill 

Congratulatory Addresses from 
Institutions of Learning 



Congratulatory Addresses 

from Institutions of Learning 

[ UNIVERSITY OF PRAGUE ] 

CSeaO 

Prag-, am 28. Oktober 1914 

An den Rat der Brown-Universitat in Providence, Rhode Is- 
land. 

DER akademische Senat der deutschen Karl-Ferdinands- 
Universitat in Prag hatte den Beschluss gefasst, Ihre Uni- 
versitat anlasslich der Feier des 150. Griindungs-Jubilaums 
amFesttagetelegraphischzu begliickwiinschen. Leiderkonnte 
dieser Beschluss infolge der Storung, welche die telegraphische 
Verbindung durch die gegenwartige Kriegslage erfahren hat, 
nicht ausgefiihrt werden. 

Ich bitte daher die Verzogerung unserer Gliickwiinsche 
durch die besonderen unvorhergesehenen Verhaltnisse ent- 
schuldigen zu wollen und versichert zu sein, dass auch diese 
schUchte Gratulation die besten Wiinsche fiir ein weiteres 
Gedeihen Ihrer Universitat zum Wohle der Wissenschaft in 
sich schHesst. 

Fiir den akademischen Senat der deutschen Karl-Ferdi- 
nands-Universitat in Prag. 

Der Rektor: 
SwoBODA 



c ^Q6 : 



Brown University 



[ UNIVERSITY OF FREIBURG ] 

Prorektor und Senat der Albert Ludwigs-Universitat entbieten 
dem President und der Corporation der Brown Universitat zur 
Feier Ihres hundertfiinfzigjahrigen Bestehens Gliickwunsch 
und Gruss. 

DIE Einladung zur Jubelfeier Ihrer Universitat haben wir 
mitderlebhaftestenTeilnahme entgegengenommen. Mit 
berechtigtem Stolze blicken Sie auf die Entwicklung Ihrer 
Hochschule, die, eine der altesten Ihres Landes, aus kleinen, 
aber verheissungsvollen Anfangen zu ihrer jetzigen Bliite em- 
porgewachsen und so eng verbunden ist mit der Geschichte 
von Providence und Rhode Island wde der Baptistenkirche in 
Amerika. 

Stets hat Ihre Hochschule einen hohen Rang unter denen 
amerikanischer Zunge eingenommen, ausgezeichnet durch 
treffliche Lehrer, verherrlicht durch Zoglinge, die im Reiche 
des Geistes oder in einer praktischen Tatigkeit sich und der 
Universitat, der sie angehorten, Ruhm gewannen. Die Namen 
der grossen Padagogen, die aus Ihrer Universitat hervorge- 
gangensind, einesWilbur Fisk und eines Horace Mann, sind 
auch bei uns wohlbekannt. 

Mit warmer Anteilnahme und aufrichtiger Hochschatzung 
blicken wir auf die 150 jahrigen Verdienste Ihrer Hochschule 
um Wissenschaft, Bildung und Leben und bringen unsere 
herzlichen Wiinsche fiir eine weitere gedeihliche Entwick- 
lung in der Zukunft dar. 

Alfred Schultze 



Freiburg i. Br., den 25. September 1914 
C 266 2 



Congratulatory Addresses 



[ UNIVERSITY OF TUBINGEN ] 

Umversitdt Tubingen, Konigl. Rektoramt. 
Tiihingen, den 9. Mai 1914 

FUR die freundliche Einladung zur 150 jahrigen Griind- 
ungsfeier Ihrer Universitat spreche ich den Dank un- 
seres Senats aus und iibermittle unsere besten Gliickwiinsche 
zu dem Jubilaum. 

Franz 



An den Herrn Prasidenten der Brown University in Providence, Rhode 
Island. 



C 267 D 



Brown University 



[ UNIVERSITY OF HALLE-WITTENBERG ] 

Halle QS'aale), den S. Oktober 1914 

Der Rektor der vereinigten Friedrichs-Universitat Halle- Wit- 
tenberg. 

An den Herrn Prasidenten der Brown University, Provi- 
dence, Rhode Island. 

DER Brown University spreche ich zu ihrer Jubelfeier 
namens der vereinigten Friedrichs-Universitat Halle- 
Wittenberg die warmsten Gliickwiinsche aus. 

Mit Stolz kann die Brown University auf eine lange und 
ruhm voile Entwicklung zuriickblicken, in der sie durch Lehre 
und Forschung an der Forderung und Verbreitung der Wis- 
senschaft mitgewirkt hat. 

Wir hegen den aufrichtigen Wunsch, dass die Brown Uni- 
versity auch in Zukunft bliihen und gedeihen werde zum 
Heile der Kultur und Gesittung, und wir verbinden damit 
die sichere HofFnung, dass das Band, das unsere Universitat 
mit der jiingeren Schwester verbindet, stets enger und inniger 
werde. 

GUTZMER 



C 268 ;] 



Congratulatory Addresses 



[ UNIVERSITY OF STRASSBURG ] 

Kaiser Wilhelms- Universitat 
Strassburg i. £., den 1. Oktober 1914 

ZUM 150-jahrigen Jubilaum Ihrer Hochschule beehre ich 
mich als derzeitiger Rektor der Kaiser Wilhelms-Uni- 
versitat Strassburg Ihnen die aufrichtigsten Gliickwiinsche 
zu iibermitteln. Moge Ihre Universitat auch fernerhin bliihen 
und gedeihen, zum Wohle der Vereinigten Staaten, mit denen 
uns das Gefiihl gegenseitiger Sympathie verbindet! 

Der Rektor der Universitat 
H. Chiari 



An die Brown-University, Providence, Rhode Island, Vereinigte Staaten 
von Amerika. 



c ^(^9 n 



Brown University 



[ UNIVERSITY OF EDINBURGH ] 

Universitati Brunensi Universitas Edinburgensis S.P.D. 

EA nostrae Universitatis aetas est, viri doctissimi et ami- 
cissimi, ut iuniorem vestram senior salutet, non tamen, 
ut speramus, senescens ; non enim Universitatum sicut singu- 
lorum hominum aetates sunt et fieri potest ut perpetua fru- 
antur iuventute : id quod vestrae certe Universitati adhuc con- 
tigisse gaudemus utque in futurum contingat optamus, licet eo 
annis provecta sit ut inter eximias istas Angliae Novae Uni- 
versitates uni Harvardensi cedere earn aetate acceperimus. 

Noverant veteres Rhodum alteram insulam, a Sole dilec- 
tam, philosophiae et eloquentiae cultricem, amicitia et fide erga 
populum Romanum insignem. Haud illi insulae, unde nomen 
traxit, dissimilis est civitas vestra, quae et ipsa philosophiam, 
eloquentiam, litteras Graecas Latinasque studiose coluit (quid 
enim? nonne etiam philosopho praeclaro, episcopo nostrati, 
hospitium praebuit? ), lucem amavit veritatis idque constanter 
egit ut nullis impedirentur vinculis qui veritatem consectaren- 
tur, ingruente autem belli civilis tempestate strenuam se prae- 
stitit et alumnos fortissimos in aciem emisit. Universitas vestra 
quas rerum vicissitudines experta sit, satis nobis notum est : 
quomodo, Collegium Insulae Rhodiae ab initio nuncupatum, 
mox Providentiam in urbem maiorem et crescentem et merca- 
turis hodie pollentem translatum sit, non tamen ut e tranquil- 
litate academica quicquam amiserit aut in aliena se societate 
collocatam senserit: scimus ut a donatore munificentissimo 
locupletata nomen olim mutaverit Universitasque Brunensis 
appellata sit utque hoc iampridem nomine celebrata simul stu- 
diis illis veritatem indagantium floruerit, simul discipulorum 
pietate et in certaminibus omnimodis robore et pernicitate in- 
notuerit, librorum autem, necessariae studiosorum supellec- 
tilis, tantam sibi copiam comparaverit quantam paucae ex 
Universitatibus Americanis consecutae sunt. 

C 270 ] 



Congratulatory Addresses 

His omnibus rebus ut diu vigeat Universitas vestra maio- 
resque adeo opes alumnosque plures sibi adsciscat, in votis esse 
nobis valdeque optari scitote: quod ut certius sciatis, legatum 
eum misimus quem habere peridoneum visi sumus, eum sci- 
licet qui, cum et apud vos aliquot annos docuerit et nunc apud 
nos doceat, inter utrosque autem et libenter, credimus, et cum 
gratia et auctoritate versatus sit, similitudinem aliquam dua- 
rum inter se Universitatium et animorum cognationem signi- 
ficare videatur. Valete et quam maxime prosperis rebus uti- 
mini, feriasque has natales annorum centum et quinquaginta 
feliciter celebratote. 

WiLHELMUS TUKNER 

Praeses 
C&«0 L.J. Grant 

•Secretarius 



Dabamus Edinburg-i, Mense Julio, Anno Domini NosUi MCMXIV 



C 271 ] 



Brown University 



[ UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE ] 

Universitati Brunianae S.P.D. Universitas Cantabrigiensis. 

REM nobis pergratam fecistis, viri nobis et generis et lin- 
. guae et litterarum et studiorum communium vinculis 
coniuncti, quod, annos centum et quinquaginta Universitatis 
vestrae ab origine inter loci et nominis vicissitudines ad finem 
felicem perductos celebraturi, Universitatem nostram ad sacra 
vestra saecularia vocare voluistis. Non sine gaudio recorda- 
mur ex alumnis nostris unum, libertatis vindicem ilium acer- 
rimum, Rogerum Williams, ipsam sedem olim condidisse, ubi 
Universitas vestra, iam per annos centum quadraginta quat- 
tuor feliciter coUocata est. Recordamur Universitatem vestram 
per annos centum et decem a benefactore quodam nomen no- 
vum esse mutuatam. Recordamur, linguae Graecae ex profes- 
soribus vestris, unum inter Scholae vestrae Atheniensis con- 
ditores olim exstitisse, alterum et Athenarum et Mycenarum 
inter monumenta, et maris Aegaei inter insulas, doctrinae fruc- 
tus iucundos percepisse. Recordamur denique bibliothecam 
vestram novam nomen posteris tradituram esse alumni vestri 
litterarum laude illustris, loannis Hay, reipublicae vestrae 
maximae per tempus nimium breve ad Britanniam legati. 

Ergo, Universitatis vestrae in honorem, legatos maxime 
idoneos duos ad vos libenter mittimus, unum in theologia, 
alterum in scientiis doctorem, qui nostrum omnium nomine 
inter ferias vestras saeculares gaudii vestri et testes et participes 
sunt interfuturi. Valete. 

QSeaO 



Datum Cantabrig-iae^ Idibus luliis, A.S. MCMXIF' 

C 272 ] 



Congratulatory Addresses 



[ UNIVERSITY OF GRAZ ] 

Rektorat der k.k. Karl-Franzens- Universitat 
Graz, den 15. September 1914 

An den Herrn Prasidenten und den Lehrkorper der Brown- 
Universitat, Providence, Rhode Island. 

HOCHGEEHRTE Herren Kollegen ! In sturmbewegter 
Zeit begehen Sie die Feier des hundertfiinfzigjahrigen 
Bestandes Ihrer ausgezeichneten Hochschule. 

Unser Vaterland, dessen friedlichster Herrscher zur Ab- 
wehr der auf die Vernichtung der Monarchic abzielenden, 
heimtiickischen und unmenschhchen Feinde gezwungen wor- 
den ist, preist mit dem Deutschen Kaiser, unserem Bundesge- 
nossen, den erhabenen Prasidenten der Vereinigten Staaten als 
den hervorragendsten Vertreter der Grundsatze der ' ' Mensch- 
Uchkeit." 

In der Verteidigung und bei dem Ausbau dieser Grund- 
satze steht unsere Universitat mit der Ihrigen zusammen. 
AUe Wissenschaft, die Sie wie wir pflegen, gipfeh in dem Be- 
streben, das hochste Menschliche durch Erkenntnis zu for- 
dern. 

So empfangen Sie unsern heissen Gluckwunsch, dass Ihre 
Hochschule wie bisher so in aller Zukunft der Forschung eine 
Leuchte auf dem Wege zur Wahrheit und Humanitat sein 
moge! 

Rektorat der k.k, Karl-Franzens-Universitat. 

Der Rektor: 
Seuffert 



1 273 ;] 



Brown University 



[ UNIVERSITY OF OVIEDO ] 

Universidad de Oviedo 

DADA cuenta al Claustro de mi presidencia, de la hon- 
rosa invitacion de V. S. requiriendo la presentacion de 
un Delegado de esta Universidad para estar presente en las 
solemnidades dispuestas con motivo de la celebracion del 150 
aniversario de la fundacion de esa ilustre Escuela, tengo el 
honor de manifestarle que, no siendo posible enviar un Dele- 
gado a la solemnidad referida el Rectorado y Claustro de la 
Universidad de Oviedo saludan cordial y atentamente a V. S. 
come Presidente de la Universidad de Brown y a su ilustre 
Corporacion, asociandose a las fiestas que se van a verificar en 
conmemoracion del 150 aniversario de su creacion, durante 
la semana que comienza el 1 1 de Octubre del presente ano, 
haciendo votos por la brillante continuacion de su historia cul- 
tural y academica. 

Al propio tiempo reciban V. S. y la mencionada corpora- 
cion universitaria con la mas sincera felicitacion y gratitud de 
la de Oviedo, el testimonio de nuestra amistad y admiracion. 

Dios guarde a V. S. muchos anos. 

El Rector, 
A. Sela 

Oviedo 13 de Jiinlo de 1914 



Al ilustre Sr. Presidente y Corporacion de la Universidad de Brown. 



[ 274 J 



Congratulatory Addresses 



[ UNIVERSITY OF GRONINGEN ] 

Universitati Brunensi S.P.D. Senatus Universitatis Gronin- 

ganae. 

Q.B.F.F.F.Q.S. 

UNIVERSITATI Brunensi, postquam per centum quin- 
quaginta annos magistrorum eruditione atque arte 
docendi discipulorumque industria et amore discendi floruit 
viguitque, mox diem natalem luculentum et felicem cele- 
branti, tot viros litteris atque artibus claros alumnos suos fu- 
isse summo iure glorianti Senatus Academiae Groninganae 
tota mente gratulatur speratque banc Universitatis Brunensis 
gloriam D.O.M. volente propriam perpetuamque fore. 

Nos, sollemni Senatus Academiae Groninganae decreto ob- 
temperantes, banc gratulationem votaque sincera vobis misi- 
mus. 

J. VAN WaGENINGEN 

Senatus Univ. Gron. Aetna rius 

t.. D. WiERSMA 

Senatus Univ. Gron. Hector 



Datum Groningae, a.d. XL Kal. Oct. MCMXIV 



C 275 J 



Brown University 



[ UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO ] 

Cancellarius Praeses Senatus Universitatis Torontonensis. 
Cancellario Praesidi Senatui Universitatis Brunensis S.P.D. 

GRATULAMUR vobis, viri insignissimi, vos ferias sae- 
culares celebrate , et annum iam ab Universitate condita 
centesimum quinquagesimum agere. Nee enim nos fugit 
Academiam vestram per multos annos examen quoddam 
alumnorum emisisse qui in litteris, in scientia, in omnigenere 
doctrinae se et Almam Matrem summa laude afFecerint. 

Gratias vobis agimus quod nos vestris feriis adesse invi- 
tastis. Amicitiam benevolentiamque vestram magni facimus 
hoc praesertim tempore quo civitas, olim carissima, in armis 
contra Imperium Britannicum (cuius nos pars parva sumus) 
tanta ira odioque sunt ut victis finis adesse videntur. Qua in 
re non mirandum est si ira indignationeque ipsi moveamini 
contra homines qui bellum sanctitate foederum violata ultro 
inferant et bellum immanitate inhumanitateque gerant paene 
incredibili . 

Gratulationem nostram ut ad vos aflFerat, virum insignis- 
simum, Robertum Alexandrum Falconer, LL.D., G.M.G., 
praesidem nostrum, delegavimus, qui laetus laetitiae vestrae 
intersit. 

Jacobus Brebner 

Registrarius 
^'^'■''^^ G. R. Meredith 

Cancellarius 



Datum ex Aede Academica, Kal. Octob., MDCMXIV 



I 276 -] 



Congratulatory Addresses 

[ UNIVERSITY OF ZURICH ] 

Zurich, den 20. Mai 1914 

Das Rektorat der Universitat Zurich an Rektor & Senat der 
Brown University, Rhode Island. 

SIE vi^aren so Hebenswiirdig unserer Universitat eine Ein- 
ladung zu senden zu der ehrenvoUen 150 jahrigen Feier 
Ihrer Hochschule. 

Wir begliickwiinschen Sie dazu, auf eine so lange Zeit 
segensreichen Wirkens und machtiger Cukurarbeit zuriick- 
blicken zukonnen. Sie haben in dieser ruhmvollen Vergangen- 
heit die besten Garantien fiir eine kraftige Weiterentwicklung 
in der Zukunft. 

Zu unserem grossen Bedauern ist es dem Senat der Uni- 
versitat Zurich nicht moglich einen Vertreter zu Ihren Fest- 
lichkeiten abzuordnen. 

Wir bitten Sie deshalb auf diesem Wege unsere herzlich- 
sten Gliickwiinsche zu dem wichtigen Ereignis, welches Sie 
feiern werden, entgegen nehmen zu wollen. 

Mit collegialem Grusse 
Rektor & Senat der Universitat Zurich 
M. Cloetta 

Rektor 



C 277 J 



Brown University 



[ UNIVERSITY OF BRUSSELS ] 

Universite Fibre de Bruxelles, Secretariat 
14, rue des Sols, Bruxelles, le 6 Avril 1914 

A Monsieur le President du conseil de I'Universitede Brown 
a Providence, Rhode Island, U. S. A. 

MONSIEUR le President. L' Universite libre a bien regu 
r invitation que vous avez eu I'amabilite de lui adres- 
ser a I'occasion de la celebration du cent-cinquantieme anni- 
versaire de votre Universite. 

II nous sera impossible de nous y faire representer ; mais 
nous vous adressons tons nos voeux de prosperite et esperons 
que I'Universite, que vous dirigez avec honneur et talent dans 
les voies scientifiques,continuera longtemps encore sa carriere 
de paix et de serenite. 

Veuillez agreer, Monsieur le President, I'assurance de ma 
consideration la plus distinguee. 

Le Secretaire de V Universite 

A. Lavachery 



: 278 n 



Congratulatory Addresses 



[ UNrVERSITY OF LOUVAIN ] 

Univershe catholtque de Louvain 
Louvain, le 24 Mai 1914 

A Monsieur le President et a Messieurs les Membres de la 
Corporation de Brown University. 

MESSIEURS. Le Conseil rectoral de I'Universite de 
Louvain m'a charge de vous remercier vivement de 
votre aimable invitation a la celebration du Cent cinquantieme 
Anniversaire de la Fondation de votre Universite. 

II nouseut ete tres agreable d'envoyer un delegue a ces Fetes 
Jubilaires ; nous en sommes malheureusement empeches par le 
devoir qui, a I'epoque fixee, retiennent nos professeurs, obli- 
ges de faire leurs cours et de proceder aux examens. 

II ne nous reste done qu'a exprimer par ecrit les voeux sin- 
ceres que nous formons pour la prosperite croissante de votre 
Universite, sous la direction des hommes eminents places a sa 
tete. 

Veuillez agreer. Messieurs, I'assurance de nos sentiments 
de haute consideration. 

Le Secretaire 

J. VAN BlERVLIET 



C 279 n 



Brown University 

[ UNIVERSITY OF MANCHESTER ] 

To the President and Senate of the Brown University, Provi- 
dence, R. I. 

ON the occasion of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anni- 
versary of the foundation of the Brown University, we 
desire in the name of the University of Manchester to offer you , 
through our delegate and former student, Professor John W. 
Cunliife, of Columbia, our cordial congratulations. Though 
the history of our own University is brief in comparison with 
yours, she may venture to claim academic sisterhood as hav- 
ing her seat, likewise, in a great manufacturing city, and 
owing a deep debt to the endowments of its merchant princes. 
During the four generations of its existence, your University 
has added to its heritage of Colonial memories an elaborate 
modern equipment. Founded in one of the smallest States 
of the Union, it has taken its full share in the achievements 
which have made New England at large independent of terri- 
torial tests of distinction. Its history, almost from the first, has 
been closely bound up with that of the family whose name it 
bears. Each of those four generations has seen this connexion 
continued and extended ; and America has given to Europe 
an example of the handing on of a great tradition of benefi- 
cence, which is one of the truest marks of aristocracy. In the 
Library created by John Carter Brown, more particularly, the 
University has become possessed of a treasure beyond valua- 
tion, which could hardly elsewhere have found a more fitting 
home. No student of American origins, visiting, as every seri- 
ous investigator of them must, this unique collection, will re- 
gret that he must seek it in the old Colonial city, not many 
steps from the spot where the apostle of religious liberty landed 
to the cry of "What cheer? " May the future of the Brown 
University continue to fulfil the happy augury of its founda- 
tion in the "City of Hope." 

F. E. Weiss 
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Manchester 

[ 280 ] 



Congratulatory Addresses 



[ UNIVERSITY OF KOLOZSVAR ] 

IN the name of Kolozsvar Francis Joseph University the 
Rector expresses hearty appreciation of your invitation to 
the celebration of the one hundred and fiftieth Anniversary of 
the founding of your University. We regret that on account 
of the great distance and the Academic work, our University 
will not be able to send a deputy, but we send our hearty con- 
gratulation for the noble work you have accomplished during 
the long run of one hundred and fifty years. 

We wish you a prosperous progress for the benefit of man- 
kind. 

Yours truly: 
(Seat) Dr. B. Kenyeres 

Rector Kolozsvar Francis Joseph University 



Kolozsvar {Hungary) , May 6. 1914. 



To Committee on the Academic Celebration of BroAvn University, Provi- 
dence, Rhode Island, U.S.A. 



C 281 ] 



Brown University 



[ UNIVERSITY OF WALES ] 

Universitati Browneanae S. P. D. Universitas Cambrensis. 

GRATIAS vobis, viri doctissimi, maximas agimus qui 
nos de ludis vestris saecularibus certiores feceritis ; lae- 
tissime etiam libentissimeque gratulamur quod Academia ves- 
tra abhinc centum quinquaginta annos felicissimis auspiciis 
condita ab exiguis sane inidis eo crevit ut hodie non solum 
inter vetustissimas sed inter clarissimas quoque Americae uni- 
versitates numeretur. Quot enim quamque amoenis in sedibus 
trans aequor Atlanticum litterarum doctrina naturaeque sci- 
entia colantur, nos quidem non sine magna admiratione, ne 
dicam invidia, solemus audire. At siquis vos antiquam exqui- 
rere matrem iubeat, ipsi confiteamini universitatem vestram 
a Cambria nostra primam, ut ita dicam, originem duxisse. 
Quamquam enim Collegio Rhodio iam condito nomen Nicolai 
Brown propter insignem eius munificentiam optimo iure in- 
ditum est, inter conditores tamen primos Morganus Ed^vards, 
vir Cambrensis, clarus semper et venerabilis habebitur. Qui 
alacri illo popularium suorum ingenio praeditus id semper con- 
siliis, orationibus, itineribus indefessus agebat ut in adules- 
centibus informandis res olim dissociabiles, religio et libertas, 
artissimo inter sese foedere iungerentur. Quid igitur Univer- 
sitati Browneanae potius precemur quam ut servetur qualis 
ab incepto processerit et sibi constet? 

Has litteras legato nostro, equiti ornatissimo, Henrico Ru- 
dolpho Reichel, Collegii Banchorensis Praefecto, in Universi- 
tate Cambrensi iam quater Vice-Cancellarii munere functo, 
ad vos deferendas dabamus. 

T. F. Roberts 

Vice- Cancellarius 
J. Mortimer Angus 

Seffistrarius 



c 282 :} 



Congratulatory Addresses 



[ UNIVERSITy OF NEUCHATEL ] 

Universtte de Neuchdtel, Cabinet du Recteur 
Neuchatel^ le \er juillet 1914 

Au Recteur et au Senat de la Brown University, Providence 
(Rhode Island). 

MONSIEUR le Recteur et Messieurs. Nous avons I'hon- 
neur de vous accuser reception de votre aimable in- 
vitation a nous faire representer aux fetes jubilaires par les- 
quelles votre Universite celebrera du 11 au 15 octobre prochain 
le 150™^ anniversaire de sa fondation. Nous attachons acette 
attention le plus grand prix, bien que par suite de diver ses cir- 
constances et a notre grand regret il ne nous soit pas possible 
de vous le temoigner par 1' envoi d'une delegation. Mais la dis- 
tance geographique n'est heureusement un obstacle ni a la 
diffusion de la pensee ni a la confraternite scientifique. Nous 
vous presentons done dans le sentiment de cette confraternite 
qui nous associe a votre joie nos felicitations les plus vives et 
nous formulons les voeux les meilleurs et les plus chaleureux 
pour la prosperite continue de votre Universite. Elle a contribue 
pendant un siecle et demi au progres de la haute culture et 
les services qu'elle lui a rendus dans le passe sont le gage 
assure de ceux qu'elle lui rendra encore dans I'avenir. In Deo 
Speramus. 

Veuillez agreer, Monsieur le Recteur et Messieurs, avec 
tons nos remerciements I'expression de nos sentiments les plus 
devoues. 

Au nom du Senat de I'Universite de Neuchatel 

Le Recteur^ 
Beguelin 
Le Secretaire^ 
A. Dubied 



1 283 : 



Brown University 



[ HARVARD UNIVERSITY ] 

The President and Fellows of Harvard College to the President 
and Corporation of Brown University, Greeting: 

BROWN University and the sons she has sent forth have 
rendered services that have earned the gratitude of the 
nation and of her sister universities. 

Gladly avaihng themselves, therefore, of the invitation of the 
President and Corporation of Brown University, the President 
and Fellows of Harvard College have appointed Abbott Law- 
rence Lowell, their President, Frank William Taussig, Pro- 
fessor of Economics, and Francis Rawle, a distinguished grad- 
uate, to represent them at the Celebration of the One Hundred 
and Fiftieth Anniversary of the Foundation of the University. 

Given at Cambridge on the fourteenth day of October, in 
the year of Our Lord nineteen hundred and fourteen, and of 
Harvard College the two hundred and seventy-eighth. 

A. Lawrence Lowell 
(Seaf) President 



[ 284 n 



Congratulatory Addresses 



[ UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA ] 

Universitas Pennsylvaniensis Universitati Brunensi S. P. D. 

VOBIS gratulamur viri illustrissimi, quod Universitas 
vestra, per to turn orbem terrarum optimo iure celebrata, 
ad annum centensimum quinquagensimum feliciter pervenit; 
quod nos quoque feriarum vestrarum participes esse voluisti 
gratias agimus plurimas. 

Speramus omnes at fidem habemus fore ut Universitas ves- 
tra per multa saecula floreat, semper crescente gloria. 

Edgar F. Smith 
(&«/) Praefectiis 

Edward Robins 

Sigillt Custos 



Datum Philadelphiae : a.d. X Kalendas Octobris^ anno Domini MD 
CCCCXIV 



c 285 n 



Brown University 



[ PRINCETON UNIVERSITY ] 

VNIVERSITATI Brvnensi filiaenostraespectataedilectae 
qvam olim peperit mater advlescentvla nvnc avtem post 
mvltos dies grandaevam immo fere aeqvaevam aliam atqve 
eandem laeta recognoscit qvam etiam meminit primo sibi aedi- 
ficantem habitacvlvm domvi matris similem deinde domvm 
svam fideliter servantem avgentem thesavrosqve sapientiae 
avro pretiosiores ibi filiis svis manibvs plenis exhibentem com- 
mendantem impertientem adeo vt hodie magnopere ditentvr 
ecclesia academia respvblica favsta Felicia fortvnata in scientia 
promovenda in repvblica servienda in fide Christi stabilienda 
donee cvrsvs vester consvmmetvr consalvtantes exoptamvs 
praeses cvratores professores Vniversitatis Princetoniensis. 

John Grier Hibben 

Praeses 



Dabamvs Princetoniae in Avla Nassovica Kal. Oct. a.s. MCMX.IV 



C 286 ;] 



Congratulatory Addresses 



[ RUTGERS COLLEGE ] 

THE President, Trustees and Faculty, of Rutgers College 
in New Jersey give greeting to Brown University on oc- 
casion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its found- 
ing. Sincere congratulations are extended to the University on 
the distinguished fulfillment of academic usefulness through 
so many years. The Colonial College next in order of found- 
ing unites in the joy of the present celebration and in the hope 
for coming years : and in token of its ancient and enduring 
fellowship presents a copy of its own royal charter. 



New Brunsrvick^ New Jersey, October 12th, 1914 



C 287 n 



Brown University 



[ UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH ] 

THE University of Pittsburgh, now in its one hundred and 
twenty-eighth year as a Chartered Academy, and in its 
ninety-sixth year as a University of Higher Learning, sends 
greetings to Brown University on the historic occasion of the 
celebration of its One hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary, and 
joins the other Colleges and Universities of America in extend- 
ing congratulations upon the completion of so long and so hon- 
orable a period of history. In the name of the Trustees and 
Faculties, the University of Pittsburgh conveys to Brown Uni- 
versity good wishes for continued and increased usefulness and 
prosperity, expresses the earnest hope that the noble aims and 
high ambitions for the future may be abundantly realized, and 
appoints Chancellor Samuel Black McCormick to attend the 
exercises at Providence, and in person to present their felicita- 
tions, properly engrossed, on the day appointed for this purpose. 



Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October twelfth, Nineteen hundred fourteen 



I 288 ] 



Congratulatory Addresses 



[ UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT ] 

TO Brown University on the happy occasion which cele- 
brates the one hundred and fiftieth year of its existence 
the Trustees and Faculties of the University of Vermont 
bring assurances of educational good will and sincere congrat- 
ulations on a record of splendid accomplishments with the 
earnest hope for a constantly enlarging prosperity to guaran- 
tee continuing honor in the American Republic of letters. 

Guy Potter Benton 

President of the University 
Edmund P. Mower 
Secretary of the Board of Timstees 



Burlington^ Vermont, the fourteenth day of October, A.D. nineteen hun- 
dredfourteen 



[ 289 ] 



Brown University 



[ ANDOVER THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY ] 

THE Faculty of Andover Theological Seminary extend to 
their honored colleagues, the Faculty of Brown Univer- 
sity, sincere congratulations upon this high academic festi- 
val, by which the University celebrates the completion of one 
hundred and fifty years of meritorious service to the cause of 
higher education. 

In fidelity to the cherished traditions of the colony and of 
the churches which the Rhode Island College was created to 
serve, the institution was dedicated by its founders to the 
untrammeled pursuit of truth, and its charter guaranteed to 
all its members ' ' absolute and uninterrupted liberty of con- 
science." 

Through a century and a half, with ever enlarging facili- 
ties and broadening view, the college has amply rewarded the 
confidence of its benefactors, and has more than fulfilled the 
expectations of its friends. It finds to-day, in its own honor- 
able history, the surest pledge of a still greater future. 

To Andover Theological Seminary from its very beginning 
have come graduates of Brown University in an almost un- 
broken stream, and the names of two successive presidents 
of the University, — Wayland and Sears, — stand enrolled 
among the Seminary's former students. May the ties thus 
uniting the two institutions prove to be strong and enduring. 

The Andover Faculty \vish for the University long contin- 
ued prosperity and ever increasing success in the educational 
service of the Commonwealth, the nation and the world. 



C 290 ^ 



Congratulatory Addresses 



[ NEW YORK UNIVERSITY ] 

New York University, Office of the Chancellor 
Washington Square, New T'ork 

ON the occasion of the One Hundred and Fiftieth Anni- 
versary of the founding of the great institution of learn- 
ing which for many years has borne the name of Brown Uni- 
versity, a sister institution, New York University, in the City 
of New York, sends greetings and felicitations. These two in- 
stitutions are bound together by many ties, by many common 
sentiments and aspirations. The consciousness of such high 
academic fellowship gives to us a a peculiar interest in the 
greetings which we send by our chosen delegate, Professor 
Marshall S. Brown, Master of Arts, Professor of History and 
Political Science, a graduate of Brown University, of the Class 
of Eighteen Hundred and Ninety-two. 

Elmer Ellsworth Brown 

Chancellor 

George C. Sprague 

Registrar 



Nezu Tork City, October the twelfth. Nineteen hundred and fourteen 



[ 291 J 



Brown University 



[ UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY ] 

President's Room, Union Theological Seminary 
Broadway at 120th street, Nezv 7'ork 

THE Union Theological Seminary in the City of New 
York offers its hearty congratulations to Brown Univer- 
sity on its long and useful life of one hundred and fifty years. 

Brown University, from the very beginning, established a 
high educational purpose, and has maintained that purpose 
throughout its history, according to the best understanding of 
educational theory and practice in the successive generations. 

Situated in the State of Roger Williams, it has imbibed as 
of right the spirit of civil and rehgious liberty, which is in- 
dispensable to our national ideals and national progress. It has 
proved, also, that religious liberty is not the same thing with 
indifference to religion. While its graduates are found in all 
the higher walks of life, including each of the historic profes- 
sions, we feel impelled on the present occasion to recognize its 
contributions to the great company of ministers of the Gospel 
who have rendered conspicuous service to Church and State 
in the last century and a half, and service devoted and un- 
failing, whether conspicuous or not, to Jesus Christ and His 
brethren in every climate and country of the world, — the suc- 
cession of whom, as we have good reason to know, shews no 
signs of failing. 

Union Seminary unites with educational foundations, far 
and wide, in felicitating Brown University on its venerable and 
brilliant past, and in wishing for it, under the blessing of God, 
a yet more notable and serviceable future. 

On behalf of the Union Theological Seminary in the City 
of New York, 

Francis Brown 
President of the Faculty 
October fourteenth. Nineteen fourteen 

I 292 ] 



Congratulatory Addresses 



[ UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN ] 

To the President and Corporation of Brown University : 

THE Regents, President and Faculties of the University 
of Michigan beg to return their thanks to you for the 
invitation to the Celebration of the One Hundred and Fiftieth 
Anniversary of the founding of Brown University. 

We rejoice with you in the record of its long and useful 
history. We congratulate you on the prospect of the brilliant 
future which now awaits it. We wish especially to express 
our gratitude to Brown for its distinguished graduate who 
for nearly forty years directed so successfully as President the 
affairs of the University of Michigan and for the eminent 
teachers whom it has furnished to our Faculties. They have 
contributed much to the reputation and influence of this Uni- 
versity and have given us for many years a deep and abiding 
interest in your prosperity. 

Harry B. Hutchins 

President 



University of Michigan^ October 7, 1914 



C 293 H 



Brown University 



[ OHIO WESLEYAN UNIVERSITY ] 

To Brown University, upon the completion of One Hundred 
and Fifty Years of History, the Ohio Wesleyan University 
sends Greeting: 

YOU have a word inscribed in your charter and illustrated 
in your history that is very dear to us. Because of your 
declaration of devotion to "full, free, absolute, and uninter- 
rupted liberty of Conscience, ' ' you have earned the applause of 
patriots, scholars, and saints. You have quickened to heartier 
zeal all who covet an unchained mind and a heart of fire. 

In this day, when a small State aflame with a noble idea in- 
vites the gaze of men, we are constrained to recite for our own 
inspiration the story of a State and a University in whose mu- 
tual honors there have been intermingled the names of states- 
men like Stephen Hopkins, soldiers like Greene, sailors like 
Perry, educators like Wayland, and apostles like Judson; all 
of whom have in their turn drunk at the same fountain with 
the hero and pioneer, Roger Williams, who laid your founda- 
tion and foretold your future. May that future be all that your 
past has pledged. 

Herbert Welch 

President 



Delaware, Ohio, October 14, 1914 



c 294 n 



Congratulatory Addresses 



[ UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN ] 

THE University of Wisconsin congratulates Brown Uni- 
versity on the completion of one hundred and fifty years 
of service to the cause of academic freedom. 

Established in the home of American religious tolerance, 
and by the descendants of those who first formulated the prin- 
ciples of relation of church and state, which have been the 
protection of both. Brown University was the first American 
college founded upon the principles of religious toleration ; and 
she has, throughout her history, shown a sympathetic com- 
prehension which has made her the acceptable alma mater of 
notable religious leaders of many denominations and modes of 
thought. To the career of statesmanship she has dedicated a 
Wheaton, a Marcy, and a Hay, who have stood at the head of 
that developing international opinion which we hope may lead 
to peace on earth. In education Wayland fostered the elective 
system, Angell has developed the machinery of the great state 
university, and Andrews has cultivated that personal leader- 
ship of men which is the crown of all our educational efforts. 
In particular, the University of Wisconsin wishes to express 
its gratitude to Brown University for the large number of men 
she has contributed to her upbuilding. 

The University of Wisconsin rejoices that one hundred and 
fifty years of activity have brought constantly increasing vigor 
to Brown University and she justifiably hopes for even greater 
contributions to the national life and happiness in the future 
than in the past. 

Charles R. Van Hise 
(&a/) President 



c ^95 :i 



Brown University 



[ UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ] 

Senatus Academicus Universitatis Californiensis Universitati 
Brunensi Salutem: 

CUM UniversitasBrunensis centum et quinquaginta annos 
vixerit et lucem doctrinse per ssecula miserit super terras, 
et nunc sollemnia celebratura sit, nos multis annis iiiiores et 
in extremis finibus patrias communis collocati tamen Isetitise 
et gaudii participes volumus esse. Itaque misimus collegam 
nostrum virumque dilectissimum Carolum Copping Plehn, 
Philosophic Doctorem et apud nos Cameralium Professorem 
necnon academise vestree alumnum dignissimum qui prassens 
ipse gratulationes nostras adferat. 

Per sascula multa Universitas Brunensis floreat et crescat. 

Data die xxiii mensis Septembris anni MDCCCCXIV et 
manu Prsesidis nostri subscripta et sigilli Universitatis Cali- 
forniensis munita. 

Benj. Ide Wheeler 
(&a/) Prxses 



C '^9Q ^ 



Congratulatory Addresses 

[ CORNELL UNIVERSITY ] 

THE Faculty of Cornell University hereby extends hearti- 
est congratulations to Brown University on its comple- 
tion of a century and a half of distinguished success in the 
cause of education. Cradled at the dawn of the new epoch 
which marked our beginnings as a nation, Brown has ever 
held fast to the highest and best in our national life. Her sons 
have lent lustre not only to the College but to the entire coun- 
try as well. The names of Wayland in education, of Judson in 
missionary endeavor, of Hay in diplomacy are those of which 
any institution, any nation, may well be proud. 

Between Brown and Cornell there have long existed the 
closest ties. Several of our most distinguished and honored 
teachers have come to us with the Brown training and the 
Brown traditions, while one of our Faculty was called from a 
professor's chair at Ithaca to assume the high post of Presi- 
dent of your University. 

It is our fervent wish that the coming centuries may con- 
tinue to crown with success the noble aspirations and faithful 
labors of Brown University. 

To bear these our felicitations and to join with you in cele- 
brating the achievements of Brown's past one hundred and 
fifty years, we have appointed as delegates, the President of 
the University, Jacob Gould Schurman, and Charles Edwin 
Bennett, one of your own alumni. 

J. G. Schurman 
(Seaf) President 

Wm. a. Hammond 
Secretary of the University Faculty 



Ithaca^ Nexv York, October 1, 1914 

C 297 ^ 



Brown University 



[ WELLS COLLEGE ] 

Wells College, Aurora-on-Cayuga, New Tori 

President's Office 

THE Trustees and Faculty of Wells College extend to 
Brown University their warm felicitations on the occa- 
sion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its foun- 
dation, and express the hope that the devotion to freedom and 
the pursuit of knowledge that characterized its earliest history 
and determined its course unto the present may continue, to 
the end that, under God's guidance, it may live, grow, and 
flourish through many centuries. 

Kerr D. Macmillan 

P}-esident 



C 298 ;] 



Congratulatory Addresses 



[ UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO ] 

To the President and Corporation of Brown University the 
President and Trustees of the University of Chicago : 

ONE of the youngest among universities, the University 
of Chicago, with profound admiration for the long and 
honorable record of one of the oldest American collegiate foun- 
dations, extends to Brown University congratulations on the 
happy completion of one hundred and fifty years of service to 
the republic. Though crowned with the venerable dignity of 
age, Brown University retains the freshness and vigor of youth . 
May she increase in the years to come the noble reputation 
she has gained in the years that are past ! 

James R. Angell 

Vice-President 

J. Spencer Dickerson 

Secretary 



Chicago,, October,, Nineteen Hundred Fourteen 



C ^99 n 



Brown University 



[ RHODE ISLAND STATE COLLEGE ] 

Rhode Island State College to the President and Corporation 
of Brown University, Greeting : 

ON behalf of Rhode Island State College, its Board of Man- 
agers, its Faculty, and its Students, we, delegates ap- 
pointed for that purpose, extend to Brown University on the 
occasion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its 
founding, the heartiest congratulations and good wishes. 
Wherever sound learning and intellectual achievement are 
known and honored, there the name of Brown University is 
revered. As a constructive factor in the life of the state — 
economic, social, and spiritual — the value of its work and 
influence, co-extensive as it is with the existence of the state 
itself, is simply inestimable. To us, modest co-workers in the 
same field, its long and illustrious career is both an asset and 
an inspiration ; its continued prosperity a matter of earnest 
desire and confident trust. As in all its past, so in the hurry- 
ing years to come, may it ever continue and renew its youth 
in new effort and achievement for the state, for humanity, and 
for God. 

Zen AS W. Bliss 
(&a/) Howard Edwards 

Delegates^ Rhode Island State College 



October fourteenth^ Nineteen hundred and fourteen 



C 300 ] 



Congratulatory Addresses 



[ RICE INSTITUTE ] 

IN response to the hospitable invitation of the President and 
Corporation of Brown University requesting the presence 
of a delegate from the Faculty or Governing Board of the Rice 
Institute at exercises in celebration of the one hundred and 
fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the University, to be 
held at Providence in the week beginning Sunday, the eleventh 
day of October, nineteen hundred and fourteen, the President 
and Trustees of the Rice Institute have pleasure in notifying 
the Committee on the Academic Celebration that Edgar Odell 
Lovett of Houston, Texas, President of the Institute, has been 
asked to represent the new foundation at the Sesquicentennial 
Festival of Brown University, and to convey to the authori- 
ties of that ancient seminary of liberal and technical learning 
cordial expressions of good will and congratulations from 
the youngest of institutions dedicated to the advancement of 
Letters, Science, and Art. 

Edgar Odell Lovett 
(&«/) President 



[ 301 ^ 



IV 

The Courses of Lectures 



The Courses of Lectures 

COURSES of lectures by distinguished American 
and European scholars were given at the Univer- 
sity during the fall and winter of 1914-15- Some of the 
lectures will in due time be published in further com- 
memoration of the Sesquicentennial. The President and 
Corporation tendered receptions to the lecturers at the 
John Carter Brown Library. 

Professor William Henry Bragg, A.M., F.R.S., Pro- 
fessor of Physics in the University of Leeds, gave four 
lectures in Sayles Hall, during the month of Novem- 
ber, upon "X-Rays and Crystals." Immediately pre- 
ceding the last lecture the degree of Doctor of Science 
was conferred upon Professor Bragg in special convo- 
cation. The Corporation and Faculty were in attend- 
ance in academic costume, Professor Dunning acting 
as marshal. Professor Carl Barus, Hazard Professor of 
Physics, in presenting Professor Bragg, said of him: 
"His first great research on the character and history 
of the X or positive rays of radium drew upon him the 
attention of scholars in physical science throughout the 
world. With characteristic energy and with the cooper- 
ation of his son, he has since distanced all other savants 
by his almost prophetic insight into the complexities 
of atomic architecture. His predictions have invariably 
been found correct. It is through his intuition and dis- 
cernment that the foundations of the newest, the most 
alluring, and the most promising of the recent depar- 
tures of physics have been laid, once for all time. "Presi- 
dent Faunce, in conferring the degree, expressed the 
honor the University had in presenting him with this 
mark of its esteem. Professor Bragg, after thanking 

i 305 :i 



Brown University 

President Faunce, the Faculty, and the Corporation, 
turning to the audience, said: " I am deeply grateful to 
the many kind friends who have rendered me so many 
courtesies and made my stay so pleasant here. I shall 
always be proud of being admitted to the fellowship of 
the University and the community." 

Paul Shorey, Ph.D., LL.D., Professor of Greek in 
the University of Chicago, gave two lectures in Sayles 
Hall during the months of November and Decem- 
ber. On November 30 Professor Shorey lectured upon 
"Interpretations of Greek Literature and History," 
on December 7, upon "Latin Poetry and European 
Culture." 

Alexander Crombie Humphreys, Sc.D., LL.D., 
President of the Stevens Institute of Technology, gave 
a course of two lectures in Sayles Hall, on January 4 
and 11, upon "Broader Training for the Engineer." 

Frank William Taussig, Ph.D., Professor of Political 
Economy in Harvard University, delivered two lectures 
in Sayles Hall, on February 8 and 15, upon "Some Re- 
lations between Psychology and Economics." 

J. Franklin Jameson, Ph.D., LL.D., Director of the 
Bureau of Historical Research in the Carnegie Insti- 
tution, gave a lecture in Sayles Hall, on February 25, 
upon "American Blood in 1775-" 

Sir Walter Raleigh, A.M., Professor of English Lit- 
erature in Oxford University, gave a course of four 
lectures, on March 22, 25, 29, and on April 1 , in Sayles 
Hall, upon "Chaucer." Before the concluding lecture 
the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters was con- 
ferred upon Professor Raleigh in special convocation. 
Professor Dunning acting as marshal of the academic 
procession. The Brown Faculty and many members of 
i 306 ] 



The Courses of Lectures 

the Corporation were in attendance. In presenting Pro- 
fessor Raleigh, Professor Walter C. Bronson said of 
him : " He belongs to the class of critics, at once judicial 
and imaginative, who pierce through the shell to the 
fruit, without, however, despising the shell that holds 
and conserves the fruit. He accepts with gratitude the 
facts established by laborious scholarship, but his chief 
concern is to make the dry bones live. He has shown 
once more that if a writer have insight and style, it is 
still possible, even while handling well-worn themes, 
to say things both fresh and true. The most conspic- 
uous feature of all his criticism is its human quality. 
By his broad and quick sympathies, by his catholic and 
wholesome moral view, and by his genial humor play- 
ing upon human nature and illuminating while it de- 
lights, he carries conviction that literature is not a thing 
apart from life, but one of the deepest and truest inter- 
pretations of it." President Faunce in conferring the 
degree welcomed Professor Raleigh " as a member of 
this society of scholars, associated henceforth with us 
in the pursuit of truth and the diffusion of knowledge 
throughout the world." 







ill 

ijiil 

■l-i i 
V-l ! 

pi 



